Thyself Known
by Zorknot
Summary: Demons infect the denizens of Nerima, giving them new powers and new problems. Ch.14: Delusion, Wherein Nabiki solves a math problem, Happosai makes a new friend, and Ranma wakes from a coma WITHOUT amnesia.
1. I Must Be Dreaming!

Thyself Known

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Zorknot

Chapter 1: I Must Be Dreaming!

DISCLAIMER: Characters and some situations originally concieved by Rumiko Takahashi.

~~~~~*~~~~~

 _ "It's like a dream you try to remember, but it's gone,   
Then you try to scream, but it only comes out as a yawn  
When you try to see the world beyond your front door.   
Take your time, 'cause theway I rhyme's gonna make you smile  
When you realize a guy my size might take a while  
Just to try and figure out what all this is for.  
Pinch me, pinch me 'cause I'm still asleep  
Please, God, tell me that I'm still asleep."  
_

Fr. "Pinch Me" by Steven Page and Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies__

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

_Ranma is in a maze, a dark labyrinth of false hallways and dead ends, of hidden traps and all too visible obstructions, of pain, frustration, and misery.__ He comes to an intersection in the hallway. He turns left. "RANMA NO BAKA!!!" he hears as Akane hits him with a hammer. Through the stars in his eyes, he sees her turn away saying "How could I love such an arrogant, self-centered, perverted, JERK!" the words stab like hot knives. Though he's heard them before, now they are spoken without the tinge of playfulness Akane with which she usually says. And then there is that word. Love. _How could Akane ever love me?_ Ranma despairs. He collapses onto his knees as he hears a familiar battle cry:_

_    "PREPARE TO DIE, RANMA!" Ranma dodges Ryoga's attacks easily and manages to stay away from the debris from his Bakuzai Tenketsu. Seeing an opening, Ranma starts his modified Tenshin Amaguriken, punching the same spot on Ryoga's chest repeatedly and with nigh inhuman speed, when he notices that Ryoga isn't trying to block. And he has a sad look on his face. Ranma stops and stares as Ryoga speaks, "You put me through hell, and now you're doing the same to Akane. I may not be able to beat you Ranma, but I can't let you hurt her anymore. She's too good for you."_

_ "Oh like you're any better? Snugglin' up to her every night as P-Chan? The only time she can stand you is when you're a pig. Heck you almost killed her when you found that waterproof soap and finally got her on a date!" The words pour out of him in a wash of anger._

_ "At least I never hurt her feelings. And you know I've been trying to find a way to stop being a pig for a long time now. I thought you would realize that, but I guess... you were never much of a friend either..." Ryoga turns and walks away as Ranma stands stunned._

_ He tries to run after Ryoga, but he finds he can't move. He briefly wonders why, then he hears it... the laugh. "WAAAAHahahahahahahahahahahaha!" It's Kodachi. She bounds into view, wearing her green leotard and waving her ribbon around as she speaks. "Hello my darling, I'm glad you are no longer resisting me," she plants a long, wet kiss on Ranma's unresponsive lips, "now we shall be wed in perfect bliss! We just have to deal with that peasant Akane and her insipid family!" Kodachi embraces him in a manner that might be called loving by a casual observer but would seem upon closer inspection perversely voracious. It's as if Kodachi wants to eat him rather than marry him. When Kodachi mentions Akane and her family they appear, all of them sad... but Akane especially. Kodachi then proceeds to lop off the head of Soun Tendo with her ribbon laughing maniacally. _NO!_ Next comes Nabiki, her face stuck in a scowl of disapproval as her head flies off her shoulders almost comically. _NOOOOO!!!!!_ Next would be Kasumi. Gentle Kasumi. Kasumi who even when possessed by evil could never really bring herself to harm anyone._

_ Ranma can't take it, somehow managing to speak he yells, "Kodachi you BITCH! When I recover, I don't care if you ARE a girl, I WILL KILL YOU!!!"_

_ "Oh but my darling, you won't ever recover! You and I will be together forever and ever and ever! Oh I forgot Ahahaha! I need to get my wedding dress! WAAAAHahahahahahahahaha!" and she bounds off into the darkness leaving a cloud of black rose petals and Akane looking hurt and dejected._

_ "Akane you gotta understand! She drugged me! I can't move! I only just have been able to talk!" Akane just stands there with tears in her eyes. Tatewaki Kuno appears with his bokken carried casually on his shoulder._

_ "Greetings, fiend. Usually I disapprove of my dear sister's multitudinous and oft fervent methods to wed the foul creature that is you, but my sibling of the fairer sex will find that I am in complete agreement with this most recent technique. Foul sorcerer that you are, you have imprisoned many to your whim not the least of which the fair tigress Akane and the fiery pig-tailed girl. How fitting then, that you find yourself imprisoned in much the same way by one who you had thought to ensnare."_

_ "Shut up, Kuno! I ain't ensnarin' nobody 'specially not that BITCH sister of yours Kodachi!"_

_ "Ah but you are. You cause women to love you like moths love the flame, and your indecision doth make the flame grow hotter causing pain and brighter causing moths to gather closer. Yet each moth is in truth a spectacular butterfly that wants but to drink from what it believes to be a flowery vessel of the sweetest nectar. Only I know that the nectar they seek is poison and your bloom is like onto that thorny variety of Plutonian flower my sister implements as her namesake." Kuno's words are still characteristically pompous but now they seem to convey something. Something that Ranma is afraid... might be true._

_ Before Ranma can come up with a suitable rebuke, Kuno fades away to be replaced by Shampoo, jumping off her bicycle and yelling "Airen!" in mid-glomp. "Is true! Ranma no can move. Shampoo marry Ranma for sure!"_

_ "Aw, get offa me, Shampoo!" Ranma tries desperately to struggle but, well, he can't move. Shampoo just hugs tighter and tighter until she almost suffocates him and finally, when it seems like he is about to pass out, she is gone, replaced by her great-grandmother, __Cologne__. Not an improvement as far as Ranma can see._

_ "Hello, Son-in-law. I hope you're comfortable, seeing as you aren't going to move anytime soon. I have the antidote, but I'm not going to give it to you until you make a certain promise. I'm sure you know what that is."_

_ "NO! I ain't gonna marry Shampoo. I don't care how many years of Amazon history are at stake!"_

_ "Pity" __Cologne__ says as she hops away on her wooden staff._

_ Akane is still there looking angry through her tears. "Please, Akane, understand! I can' t help it! I just don't wanna hurt their feelin's!" _That's odd_, thinks Ranma. He had meant to say something about being paralyzed, but instead THAT came out. _What's going on...?__

_ A worried-looking Ukyo runs up to Ranma. "Ucchan! Finally someone who I can trust!"_

_ "Hey Ranchan! Guess what!"_

_ "What?"_

_ " I was able to get that antidote from __Cologne__!"_

_ "That's fantastic, Ucchan! Now I can move again! You're such a good friend!"_

_ "Just one moment." Ukyo Kuonji pauses with the antidote in her hand "Before I -give this to you I want ask you one thing"_

_ "What's that?"_

_ "Do you love Akane?"_

_ Ranma doesn't know what to do. There's Akane, with tears in her eyes, who will either explode... or merely break apart if he says no. Then there's Ukyo who was always his friend ...or so he thought, but he can see in her eyes that she wants more, and she will be similarly affected if he says yes. _I can't decide I CAN'T DECIDE! Why can't people just leave me alone!!! _He closes his eyes tight in frustration as voices from the past echo his feelings "Akane or the pig-tailed girl, the pig-tailed girl or Akane!!" "Should I tell Akane about being P-Chan or not? If I tell her she'll hate me if I don't she'll never love me as a man!" "Which one should I wear the red dress or the blue? What do you think, Ranma, the blue dress or the red?" Ranma opens his eyes to find his father standing with a bucket._

_ "Make a decision, boy. You are acting like A GIRL!!!" he splashes Ranma with the contents of the bucket breaking a now female Ranma from paralysis. Onna-Ranma stretches for a moment glad to finally be able to move. Suddenly, she's surrounded by cats! They get closer and closer, and they all seem to yowl "Airen" or "Darling" or "Ranchan" or even "Baka."_

_ "Oh no not c- c- c- CATS!!!" Onna-Ranma turns and runs at full speed away from the furry creatures, entering the right side of the intersection. Suddenly, the cats are gone and there's a curious silence. _What the hell's going on here? One second I'm running for my life and the next...nothing._ Then in the darkness, three words are heard in a sickeningly familiar voice. "Suki da. I love you," it's Kuno. Then he appears...and he appears again, and again... like an image from another dream Ranma had when Kuno had first met his "pig-tailed goddess." The images grasp hands and circle around Ranma's head chanting, "I love you I would date with you I love you I would date with you IloveyouIwoulddatewithyou..."_

_ "Arrrrgggghhh I'm A GUY" Yells Ranma_

_ Then Mikado Senzenin of the Golden pair glides out of the darkness "You shall be my thousandth conquest!" he says as he puckers his lips._

_ "Get away from me, you pervert, I'm a MAN"_

_ Nodoka appears and smiles proudly "You'll make a good wife someday, Ranko"_

_ "But MOM! I'm ain't a girl!"_

_ "Why would you say a thing like that? Really, Ranko, such words are not becoming of a lady"_

_ "That's what I'm trying to tell you I'm a MAN I'm your SON"_

_ The Kunos break from their chant to say in unison "Methinks the lady doth protest too much"_

_ "What the hell is THAT supposed to mean! And who're you callin' a lady?!"_

_ "It means," says Ryoga appearing out of the darkness with a smirk "that if you were really so sure that you were a man you wouldn't bother saying it so much."_

_ "Shut up P-CHAN!"_

_ "Oooh looks like I hit a nerve! Could it be true? Could it be that Saotome Ranma the 'man among men' actually LIKES being a girl?" Ryoga seems to be enjoying this immensely._

_ "That's not true and you know it, Ryoga!"_

_ "If you like being a girl so much, why don't you just STAY that way!" It's Akane, a voice from the past, from a time when Ranma had almost considered that very thing. Ranma was pretty much frightened off the idea when his two halves were separated and his female half turned out to be an evil, soul-sucking demon. Still, it revealed in a moment the falsehood of Ranma's statement._

That reminds me, why isn't Happosai here?_ Onna-Ranma has only a moment to wonder why it is that Happosai SHOULD be here before her father's master glomps her._

_ "Oh, Ranma! I'm so glad! NOW will you wear this little number?" the demon midget said managing to pull out a silk teddy while squeezing Onna-Ranma's breasts at the same time._

_ "No... I ... will... not... you... PERVERT!" yells Ranma as she dropkicks the master into oblivion. Ranma always felt... weird whenever the old lech did that. _I gotta find some hot water_!  And there it is right in the middle of the intersection in the form of a piping teakettle. Ranma lunges for it and pours the rather painful contents on her head turning her back to a man. _Well only one more direction to go..._ Thinks Ranma, newly male, as he walks down the middle corridor._

_ He wonders briefly at how odd everything seems: people appearing out of nowhere, not being able to move, cats talking. There was something that all this meant if he could just figure it out. _Wait, it has something to do with what you say when nothing seems to make any sense. What is that? 

_ Now he realizes he is approaching a gigantic mirror. The figure in the mirror becomes more discernable until he finds that it is himself, or rather, his female self._

Oh now I remember!_  "I must be dreaming!" That doesn't seem to do anything._

Wait there's something else I'm supposed to do, something stupid involving pain... ohhhhh!_  Before Ranma can pinch himself he pauses as he sees his female self raise her arm, pointing straight at him. The female Ranma speaks accusingly, confusingly, angrily. She says, " WHO ARE YOU?" Otoko-Ranma remains silent. "WHO ARE YOU!!!" Onna-Ranma demands. Then Otoko-Ranma remembers and pinches himself. Of course he feels nothing because he is dreaming._

_"I AM dreaming!!!" Ranma _says_ as _reality_ starts _making_ itself appar_ent _once _a_gain._

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Ranma woke up with a start. _What a weird dream! , he thought. He tried to keep the events of the dream in his mind. Ranma had a feeling that the dream was important somehow, that it revealed some inner truth about him and perhaps foreshadowed some event to come..._

He sat for a moment on his futon thinking about it. He'd never remembered the pinching thing working before. He shrugged. _I guess there's something to it after all_. Ranma had always thought the idea of pinching yourself to find out if you were dreaming was pretty stupid. Couldn't you just dream there was pain after you pinched? And what if you dreamt you were a butterfly or something, like that monk in the old scroll Pops stole from that temple in China? How would you pinch yourself then? Yet it had worked. Weird.

_Hmmm...__ Now what was the dream about? Something important... revealing some inner truth... Ranma couldn't remember a single thing about the dream. Well, aside from the pinching. __Now why would that be important? _

He noticed it was still dark and the large furry creature he knew as his father was still snoring beside him. He had woken up early. "I must be dreaming!" he said as he pinched himself. This time nothing happened.

Ranma was not the least bit tired, and he knew without trying that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. He glared enviously at the soundly sleeping panda and got to his feet, grimacing as the aches and pains from the previous day's battles made themselves known once again. He stretched a bit, working out the little bit of stiffness in his joints, before he got dressed and went downstairs.

There he found an extremely exhausted Kasumi trying desperately to wake up with a cup of tea. "Oh hello Ranma!" she said as cheerfully as she could manage while yawning.

"Morning, Kasumi! Jeez, you look tired! How'd your date go with Dr. Tofu?"

Kasumi laughed in spite of her self. It had been an experience. The poor dear was so nervous he almost couldn't walk. He had very nearly taken Betty the skeleton out instead of her! Then... then they had kissed. After that she was the nervous one! They laughed and talked all night. They shared stories about Ranma and his friends and some of the other things they had been through. Then she asked him what finally caused him to ask her out. And he said he had been wondering the same thing about her. They each took out the notes they received... They were both truly excellent forgeries. Nabiki really had a talent. _Oh what a loving family I have! _Thought Kasumi as she remembered, _if only I wasn't so tired so I could fix a decent breakfast for them!_  "It was wonderful, Ranma, thanks for asking," She said out loud, smiling as she mumbled through the words.

"What time did'ya get in last night?"

"Oh about three hours ago," Kasumi responded drowsily. "Oh my! I really must get started on breakfast..." she seemed to lose consciousness for a second, "So I can... finish before the others come down." She swayed a bit as she struggled to get up from her sitting position.

"Um... Kasumi?"

"Yes Ranma?"

"How about... how about I cook breakfast for a change? That way you can get some rest."

"Y-you would do that?" Kasumi was surprised even through her stupor. She knew that Ranma could do it. Whenever he had cooked she had found that he had talent that rivaled even her own, although she would always be more experienced. The thing was, he usually only cooked when his mother was around and he was pretending to be Ranko. The only other time he had ever asked to cook was when he got that nasty knock on his head and thought he was a girl. He had always claimed it was "women's work." "Is something wrong?" Kasumi asked worriedly. She didn't think she could deal with anything that unusual today.

"No, no I'm fine. Don't worry. I'm not about to start actin' like a girl or nothin'... it's just, well, you look so tired I'm afraid you wouldn't be much better than Akane in the kitchen, and I'm not about to ask HER to cook so...Just don't tell nobody okay?"

"Okay," Kasumi mumbled as she staggered off to bed. She reflected on how nice Ranma was being. It was a side she wished he would show more often. Maybe then he and her sister would get along better. She really needed some sleep. It was so nice of Ranma to notice how tired she was. What she hoped he didn't notice was that she was quite a bit hung over too.

She passed Nabiki in the hall, but was too tired to say anything. _I'll have to make sure to thank her later.  As she entered her room and climbed into bed she was barely aware of something being wrong. That there was something she was supposed to do. She might have realized what it was if she wasn't so worn out. Instead she yawned through another "Oh my!" and fell asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. She didn't wake up for another four hours._

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Nabiki had, despite all attempts to stay asleep, gotten up early. As she entered the hallway and walked toward the washroom Nabiki passed Kasumi in the hall, but it was obvious she was too tired to say anything. _I'll have to ask her how her date went later. Kasumi was evidently going back to bed. Nabiki smiled, She was probably too worn out from her date to stay up. Nabiki entered the washroom, answered a pressing call of nature, and splashed some water on her face to dispel the tendrils of sleep that had formed on her eyes from a night of wondering how her sister's date was going. Suddenly, a horrible, terrifying, and all around unpleasant question came to her mind: If Kasumi is going back to sleep... then WHO'S COOKING BREAKFAST???_

She jerked her head up with a start, completely awake now. She had to know whether to call a restaurant, or the paramedics. If no one was cooking, she knew a restaurant that would deliver. It was expensive but worth it. Just as long as Akane didn't cook. If Akane was cooking, and that was entirely possible she suddenly realized, then doom awaited everyone at the Tendo dojo!

Nabiki sprinted quickly toward her room, careful not to make too much noise and disturb Kasumi (although she really didn't need to worry, Kasumi was out cold). Kasumi had always taken care of the culinary needs of the Tendo home without complaint. She deserved her rest this morning. Nabiki now had a mission: to make sure breakfast was served and that it was edible.

First, though, she had to see what exactly the situation was in the kitchen. If Akane were cooking, she'd be extremely angry if Nabiki went ahead and ordered out. It would take several minutes of reasoning with the unreasonable before she would get Akane to relent. Unfortunately the kitchen was definitely NOT a safe place to be when Akane cooked. If she wanted to talk to Akane unscathed she had to know in which direction the knives were flying. Luckily, in the year or so since the Saotomes' arrival, Nabiki had amassed enough money from Ranma's frequent misadventures to pay for a highly advanced, nearly undetectable security system. A security system that could be monitored more or less completely from a small space inside Nabiki's closet. She went there now and turned on the laptop that showed the images from all the security cameras in the house.

    The camera in the kitchen was angled so that a viewer wouldn't be able to see what was being cooked but could still tell what was going on. Nabiki didn't want anybody stealing Kasumi's recipes, but with the frequent appearances of Nodoka, the kitchen was one of the prime spots for action now. She didn't really intend to sell the rather embarrassing tapes of Ranma as Ranko, but she figured that if she really needed Ranma to do something... well Nabiki was never above a little blackmail to get what she wanted. She keyed up the window for the kitchen...Ranma was cooking! She watched as he picked up a bunch of pots and pans that had fallen and put them back in place. And then...Nabiki barely managed to keep her jaw from hitting the keyboard.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Ranma was a little too busy to realize her mistake. She had since changed to girl form because she found it easier to cook that way. Otoko-Ranma's longer limbs, while an asset in battle, proved to cause some clumsiness in the kitchen where Ranma was more used to the female form.

Ranma was just about done with the spinach and rice and was ready to start on the soup, when Nabiki entered the kitchen with a very surprised look on her face... that couldn't completely hide the smirk. _Ranma's going to be willing to do anything to keep this under wraps! _

Ranma stood, frozen, her eyes wide, looking more than a little like a deer suddenly realizing that it just walked out onto a major highway. Then she sighed remembering Kasumi. "Nabiki, before you get any ideas, I'm doin' this for Kasumi. You didn't see how tired she was. She could barely sit up straight! There was no way I was going to let her cook in that condition." Nabiki stared at Ranma. That last part sounded an awful lot like Nodoka. Ranma noticed too: "I mean, it ain't like she's gotten any breaks or nothin'" she recovered. There was a long pause filled with Nabiki's shocked stare "Well, if you are not going to say anything, I have got to get back to the grill or the rice will get burned."

Nabiki squinted. She was reverting to Ranko. Nodoka was just too strict a teacher. As Onna-Ranma set about preparing the rest of breakfast she looked like any other girl. "Hey Ranko!" Nabiki called.

Onna-Ranma turned and said with a look of mild annoyance "What is it, Nabiki, I am trying to work here." Then her eyes went wide. "Wait a minute- did you just call me-? Hey that don't mean nothin' It's just that I'm used to bein' Ranko when I'm cooking and..." she turned around and stirred the rice for a moment, as her aura suddenly grew very cold. _I don't need to explain anything to her. She's part of the problem. What she says doesn't matter, I need to keep the others from knowing otherwise I might not be able to keep up the soul of ice "How much" she said quietly._

"Hmm?" Nabiki knew perfectly well what Ranma meant, but she wanted a clarification.

"If Pops finds out about this, I'm dead. If anyone from school finds out about it, I'm REALLY dead, and if Akane finds out I did this 'cause her cooking is so terrible, she'll probably make me wish I were dead. So what do I have to do to keep you from tellin' everybody about it." Ranma took the rice off the element and started heating the water for the soup.

"About what exactly?"

_Dammit__ she's so annoying! Calm down. Why is she annoying? She is asking about the obvious. Why would she do that? It makes no sense... unless it isn't that obvious. She heard what I said... so there must be something else. She wants to know what she can get away with., Ranma had mastered the soul of ice with great difficulty. It was hard to not care about... certain things. Once she had learned it, though it proved invaluable. Especially when Mom showed up. The increased ability to think logically was an added bonus. "About the cooking, and the Ranko thing..." Ranma said, responding to Nabiki's question ", but you know something else... don't you." Ranma turned around as she said this. She had a minute or so before she had to put ingredients in. She walked to Nabiki, who was still in the doorway, and noted the raised eyebrows "You do know something else!"_

_Damn, thought Nabiki, recognizing Ranma's "soul of ice" mode, _ever since he learned that Hiryu Shotan Ha thing, he's been getting less and less gullible._  "Yes," she said flatly, "It's not like you could keep it a secret for long, not in this house."_

"Keep what a secret?" Ranma demanded. Before Nabiki could answer, they were interrupted by a voice from the stairs.

"Morning Kasumi! I'm up a little early so I thought I'd- Nabiki? RANMA?" If someone had asked Akane which two people she would guess least likely to be standing in the kitchen doorway this early in the morning, she would have repeated those very names.

Ranma grimaced, then spoke softly to Nabiki so Akane wouldn't hear: "She will probably figure it out anyway so tell her whatever you want, but in any case, if you want to have something other than toxic waste for breakfast you had better keep her out of the kitchen." She went back to the stove and started adding ingredients to the Miso soup, leaving Nabiki to fend for herself.

"What's going on here? Where's Kasumi? Is Ranma COOKING? Who are you, and what have you done with my sister?" Akane was only half joking.

"Calm down, Akane-chan, the pod people haven't gotten to me YET. As for Ranma... I'm not so sure. From what I gather, he evidently got up early this morning for some reason and he and Kasumi talked for a bit. Well Ranma noticed how tired Kasumi was so he... offered to cook breakfast." Spoken out loud, the idea of Ranma offering to cook seemed even more ridiculous. Nabiki paused for a moment, wondering again at Ranma's actions, then continued. "I saw Kasumi go back to bed and I came down here to... find out what was going on. What I found was Ranma, cooking away like he was raised in a kitchen. He even answered to Ranko once and spoke proper Japanese. Auntie Saotome must really have him whipped."

"That's weird! But... why are you telling me all this?"

"Because, little sister, having a secret's no fun unless you tell it, and Ranma and I were about to make a deal to turn all this information classified when you came down the stairs."

"Humph, okay. Well I guess I'll see if I can help with anything..."Akane started to enter the kitchen, but Nabiki hurriedly pulled her back.

"Eh... no."

"What's wrong, Nabiki?" Akane asked.

"I don't think it's a good idea for you to go in there right now," Nabiki said carefully.

"Why not?" Akane asked defensively.

"Don't...make me answer that." The two sisters glared at each other for a moment. Akane knew why she wasn't being let into the kitchen. She was quite aware that her cooking was ...bad, but she felt she had to keep trying. Nabiki, on the other hand, understood Akane's wish to be a better cook, but wasn't too keen on the possibility of dying from one of Akane's creations. This formed a powder keg that would have ignited between them long ago if it hadn't been for-

"That absolute, no good, dirty, rotten, perverted, JERK!" Akane was almost screaming. "I'm going to make him wish he was dead!"(Enter recognition of irony here) Nabiki saw the hammer starting to materialize in Akane's right hand as she once again headed into the kitchen.

"Whoa, back off there, sunshine. He's almost done and there's one other thing I've got to tell you about."

"What's that?" Akane paused, and her half-materialized hammer winked out once again into nonexistence.

"Okay I was watching Ranma in the kitchen and-"

"Excuse me. Since everybody is going to wake up now, we might as well go over the story we are going to tell our fathers" Onna-Ranma was back where Nabiki and Akane were standing having left the fish to cook for a while.

Akane stared at Ranma for a moment: _He really is acting weird!_ However Ranma was acting, though, Akane was still Akane: "What do you mean 'everybody is going to wake up'?"

Onna-Ranma just looked at her, eyes level with Akane's, until Nabiki pointed out, "Well you've got to admit, sis, you WERE pretty loud when you were screaming bloody murder just now."

"Right." Onna-Ranma said, breaking her staring contest with Akane, her aura warming somewhat. "Now, Pops can't know I've been cookin' or he'll go ballistic. So what I'm gonna tell him is that I came down here when Kasumi was just about finished and-"

"Uh... Ranma" Akane interrupted, pointing over Onna-Ranma's left shoulder.

"What!" She was a little annoyed at being stopped in the middle of explaining what she had thought to be a pretty good plan... and then she turned around.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
If there was one thing Happosai had taught Genma well, it was stealth. He had managed to sneak past Nabiki and Akane with ease and almost went undetected, but all the stealth in the world won't make up for stupidity. When his son started talking he crept round the corner, now in full view to see what was going on _Fade into the woodwork, that's the ticket! _Akane of course had no trouble seeing a full-grown panda regardless of how much said panda was trying to look inconspicuous.

Onna-Ranma saw her father. It was all over. "Ohhhh... uh... Hi!... er... Oh!... Ohayo Pops! Gotta get going... the soup..." she trailed off as she ran into the kitchen to check on the soup. So much for the soul of ice. It had pretty much fizzled out at that point. Nabiki was right: you couldn't really keep a secret long in the Tendo Dojo. Even, as Ranma would soon find out, secrets you didn't know you had...

Genma, being unable to talk, was silent as Nabiki explained what Ranma had done, leaving out the Ranko business and the part that Ranma and Akane evidently didn't know yet. After hearing it, Genma was still a little worried, but he was also...proud.

After a while Nabiki walked in the kitchen and noticed the teakettle full of water being heated on the stove. It was time to find out for sure if Ranma knew or not.

"What's that for?" Nabiki asked innocently pointing to the kettle. Ranma gave her a quizzical look. "It heats water, you know, like for tea and changin' back into a guy and so on. Did Akane throw you into the koi pond or somethin'?" Getting thrown into the koi pond had become the favored explanation for odd behavior in the Tendo home, and Nabiki not knowing something that Ranma did would certainly be considered odd.

He doesn't know... or maybe..."So you can only do it one way?"

"Do what? Nabiki, you ain't makin' any sense!" Onna-Ranma gingerly felt the side of the kettle, decided it was warm enough, and raised it into position.

"You're not telling me something," Nabiki accused.

"I don't know what you're talkin' about," Ranma said as he poured the kettle's contents onto his head.

Nabiki stared. It was true, he wasn't telling her something, but the reason he wasn't telling her was that he didn't know about it himself. Not only does he not know, He's completely oblivious! "Ranma baby, after school I'm going to show you something, and you're going to want to bring cash."

Ranma grew pale. He knew from experience it would be in his best interests to follow Nabiki's "advice". "Sure thing, that is, if Pops hasn't disowned me by then."

A paw grabbed Ranma's shoulder. He absently handed the teakettle to his father who promptly emptied it on his head. "Don't worry, son, I won't disown you." Genma had caught the tail end of the conversation once again, but for once, he was right on time.

Ranma was shocked. That statement was the closest his father had ever come to saying that he loved him. It was even better than ten years ago, when he had said, "Maybe you're not so pathetic!" "But...but cooking... it's women's work and I have to be a man among men and..."

"Cooking is a very useful skill on the field, boy, As long as it doesn't interfere with your martial arts... I see nothing... wrong with it. In fact, once you and Akane are married, knowing how to cook may mean the difference between life and death..." Ranma glanced around when his father made that remark, but Akane was gone. _Damn! She's never around when someone else makes a mistake!_

"No," Genma continued, further cheered that Ranma hadn't reacted to the marriage reference "I'm not going to disown you. I'm proud of you boy. This morning you fulfilled a debt of honor. That girl Kasumi has helped the Tendos and us without any thanks. Helping her out if anything proves that you are a man among men and I think your mother would agree with me on this."

Ranma could barely contain himself "You mean I can see my mother... as a guy?!"

"No," Genma shook his head sadly, "She wouldn't understand your curse, but if she could, I'm sure she'd agree."

Ranma deflated a little at that. "But... I can cook... whenever I want to?"

"As long as it doesn't interfere with your martial arts training...yes." Ranma couldn't remember a time when he had been happier. Ranma had secretly felt that the only thing he was any good at aside from martial arts was cooking, and now he could do both with his father's approval! Ranma had always worked for his father's approval, and even after all Genma put him through it still meant a lot. A huge smile broke out on his face and he yelled out the first thing that came to his mind: "Yaa paa paa!"

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Akane turned to her older sister as she walked out to begin her morning jog: "What does that mean?"

Nabiki shrugged: "Beats me." Akane stood in the doorway looking thoughtful for a moment before she left. "Hey, wait a minute don't you want to know..." Akane was gone. _Oh well,_ Nabiki thought _No one's paid me yet. Might as well keep this a secret for a while._

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
"Prepare yourself, boy! You must continue your training!" Genma, resplendent in his white gi took his stance beside the koi pond.

Ranma had stopped wearing a gi during his workouts a while back. Most of the time, he wore his black Chinese pants and a tank top. He was usually late for school, and it was quicker to just put the over shirt on rather than change out of a gi. He kicked his father into the pond. "Hey I'm all for training, Pops but couldn't we do this later? I mean what if Akane walks into the kitchen while I'm not there?"

The panda walked out of the pond holding a sign "The life of a martial artist is fraught with perils," it said. With that, Genma leapt toward Ranma and the two exchanged a flurry of kicks and punches.

Some time later Akane came back from her jog. "Hey Ranma! You busy? I'll check the soup for you!" She ran into the house.

A young man and a panda paused in their sparring and looked at each other. Then they looked at the shorthaired girl entering the house. The panda lifted a sign: "Go, son, before it's too late!"

Ranma ran into the house. Luckily Nabiki was still running interference. "Hey look at this, Akane-chan," Nabiki was saying to her sister as Ranma came into the room. She was pointing to a finance magazine she had been reading. "It looks like stock in United Concrete Inc. has gone up since last month. You think you might have anything to with that?"

"Very funny, Nabiki. Oh hello Ranma you're done sparring already?"

"Er.. yeah." Behind Akane, Nabiki was making circular motions and mouthing something... sa..ra? _Huh? Dishes? Ohhhhh!_ "Hey Akane! Why don't you set the table while I get everything ready and heat some water up for Pops."

"Okay!" _Ranma ASKED me to help! Wait a minute... he probably just didn't want me in the kitchen that JERK!_ Grimacing now, Akane started preparing the table. "Well, I guess Daddy didn't wake up after all!" she said to Nabiki in an attempt to gain some satisfaction from Ranma being wrong.

"Oh he came down. He went off to the dojo to meditate." Nabiki stated matter-of-factly as she put her magazine away and started helping Akane out of sheer boredom.

"You don't think it's because of-"

"When is it not?" the mood was suddenly serious. A moment passed, then a large panda walked in the room and headed toward the kitchen. If you've seen a panda then you know that despite being very large, they don't seem very threatening. They look like gigantic black and white teddy bears. With silly little tails.

Akane started laughing, and Nabiki followed. "What's so funny?" the panda signed. The girls laughed even harder. Genma growfed grumpily and went into the kitchen.

Nabiki suddenly stopped, her smile sad now. "You know, there won't always be a panda to lighten the mood."

"Oh, Nabiki, you're no fun" Akane said brightly as she put the last plate on the table.

"Me? I'm loads of fun!" Nabiki countered pulling a camera from beside her and snapping a picture of Akane's smile, "I'm having fun right now!"

"Gimme that!" Akane said as she snatched the camera out of Nabiki's hands and took a few of Nabiki. They were both laughing when their father walked in. "Morning! How are you feeling?" Akane greeted him.

Soun Tendo loved his daughters very much. His face was filled with a warm, loving smile as he looked at his youngest daughter, always ready to fight for those she cared about. He held that smile as he gazed proudly at his second youngest daughter, who would someday be a successful businesswoman. His face went slack and his mouth became a tight straight line when he realized his eldest daughter was missing. "Where's Kasumi," he demanded.

"Relax, Daddy. She went back to sleep. She had a LONG night last night" Nabiki explained with a smile.

Mr. Tendo was visibly relieved. "Oh yes... her...date." This brought on some Tendo waterworks: "My daughters are growing up!" Then he stopped suddenly. He looked at the food on the table. He managed not to look at Akane. "Heh heh heh so... who cooked?" He tried to sound as innocent as possible.

"I did!" exclaimed Ranma, entering from the kitchen followed by his father.

"Ranma? You cooked?"

"Yep yep yeppity yep yep yep! It was me. I made breakfast. Hope you like it."

Soun looked confused for just a moment, then relaxed. He had seen too many strange things in his life to be troubled too much by such a relatively small thing as...Ranma is cooking!? He looked confused again. _Well, I guess the food will be edible enough._  "Very well then... let's eat."

With that the Tendos and the Saotomes ate, and for a moment things seemed almost normal. Almost. There were two remarkable differences. First, Kasumi was not there. She was missed. Not just because everyone was curious as to how her evening with Dr. Tofu had gone either. The breakfast table was often used as a place to discuss problems, and Kasumi had always found a way to put them in a better light. Ranma might be complaining about Ryoga trying to fight him all the time and she would say something like "Oh sometimes friends just disagree" and the situation wouldn't seem nearly as bad. It was the same with every other problem the Tendos or Saotomes had. Even if Kasumi's comments were unrealistically optimistic, more often then not, they helped whoever was having the problem immensely. Without her there, breakfast was uncomfortably quiet.

The other difference was that it was Ranma's food they were eating. Ranma had cooked before, but always with Nodoka or Kasumi's help. Ranma cooked this without any assistance, and with each bite everyone was more surprised at how good it was.

"Got to admit, Ranma..." Nabiki paused as she chewed her food, "This isn't half bad"..._and I didn't have to spend 30,000 yen on delivery! _

"Thanks, Nabiki!" Ranma was surprised to receive a compliment from the ice queen.

"Don't mention it."

There was a long silence as everyone ate. After a while, Soun, having eaten a little of everything passed his judgment. "Yes, this is pretty good. Kasumi didn't help you with this?"

"Actually she helped me a lot. I probably wouldn't have been able to make it if it hadn't been for her. But this morning I cooked. By myself" Ranma smiled widely as he said the last part. His breakfast was on a par with Kasumi's! He didn't even realize how modest he was being.

Genma actually paused in his inhalation of food to say, "well done, boy." This was too much. Something bad simply had to happen. Ranma's eyes strayed to the other empty place at the table. A certain wrinkly, hyperactive and hyper-perverted senior citizen was due to make an appearance any minute now. Ranma didn't let it get to him. He was too happy. Nabiki, Tendo-san, and even Pops had said how good his cooking was. In fact the only one who hadn't said anything was...

Akane was fuming. _Oh sure! Everyone just LOVES Ranma's food! MY food is toxic waste, but not RANMA's. Oh and let's not forget he's cuter than I am, HE can swim and HE'S a WAY better martial artist. He's a MUCH better daughter than I am...AND HE'S A BOY!!! It's not fair, it's not fair, IT'S NOT FAIR!!_ Akane's battle aura was blood red and whipping about her head like a silk sheet in a tornado.

"Um...Akane?" Ranma asked cautiously.

"WHAT." Akane replied furiously.

"Is... something wrong?"

"Oh NOTHING..." Akane answered in a manner similar to what the devil might sound like if someone said something bad about its mother, "You'll make a good wife someday, RanKO!"

Everyone stared at Akane, except Akane, of course, who was glaring at Ranma, seeing how he would respond. Akane's eyes grew wide as saucers. Before anybody could say anything, they heard a familiar cry. "SWEETO!" Happosai practically flew form some unseen corner of the room and onto Ranma's chest.

"Get offa me ya old coot!" Onna-Ranma exclaimed as she dropkicked the perverted master through the newly installed trapdoor in the ceiling. Nabiki absently noted that that had been a solid investment after all. Ranma shuddered. She always felt weird whenever he did that, and recently she had been having the feeling longer, and longer.

Now everyone was staring at Ranma, except for Ranma who was looking at Akane to see if she was still angry. To Ranma's relief, shock and astonishment eclipsed her previous feelings of rage and hate. "Why'dya call me that, Akane? You know that's a low blow. And why do ya look so surprised all of a sudden?" Ranma noticed that everyone else looked the same way too. "Uh...why do ALL of you look so surprised all of a sudden?" Actually, by that time, Nabiki had stopped looking surprised. She knew about it already after all, but it was still hard to believe. Ranma didn't notice this, but she did notice Genma's expression turn from one of shock to one of grim seriousness.

"How long have you been able to this, b-Ranma?"

"What?" Genma didn't answer. Ranma tried for the last strange thing that happened. "Do you mean how long have I able to change?" Genma gave a small nod. Ranma gave him a confused look, "Since Jusenkyo, Pops, you remember. We both fell in the springs? You fell in the Panda spring and I fell into Nyannichuan." Ranma tried to stop there but couldn't help it. "Verrry tragic story of young girl who drown there one-thousand five hundred year ago."

Ranma realized her father was still glowering. "Come on, did Happosai glomp me into some sorta parallel universe or somethin'? When we get doused with cold water we turn into our cursed forms. Hot water turns us back."

"Ranma..." Nabiki interjected

"What."

"Do you need a towel?"

"No, what would I need a towel...for." Onna-Ranma suddenly realized that aside from the residual dampness from the hot kettle water, she was completely dry. She had changed forms without water. "I... Why am I... What the hell's goin' on?"

"We were kinda wondering the same thing." Nabiki offered.

"I must be dreaming!" Ranma said as she pinched herself, but except for the small pain, nothing happened.

 ~~~~~[END]~~~~~  
End notes:

It gets weirder.

Thanks to John C Watson who pointed out some of the problems with the original.

C+C welcome.


	2. Happi Daze

Thyself Known 

Ch 2: Happi Daze 

by Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: And Takahashi Rumiko did create the great Ranma 1/2 series. And it was good. And then did pretenders such as myself did play with plot concepts and character developments. And there was much rejoicing. Yay.

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE: Ranma had a dream, he woke up, talked to Kasumi about her date with Dr. Tofu, made breakfast to the consternation of the other Tendos and his father, father told him he could cook without being unmanly as he had fulfilled a debt of honor, Ranma sat down to eat, Akane got angry, and Happosai glomped Ranma, but not before Ranma changed from male to female... without water. Witness the aftermath.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
_"You had your faults; but you were bad at heart.   
I disliked each life, I assure you, for its own sake.   
But to deal indifferently in life and death;   
To sell wholesale, piecemeal, annihilation;   
To-I will not go into particulars  
This beats me  
  
To MEN, NOW, should I give advice?   
I'm vain, as you know; but not ridiculous.   
Here in my inglenook, shy, idle, I conclude:   
I NEVER UNDERSTOOD THEM: as the consequence.   
They end without me...."_

Fr. "A Conversation With the Devil" by Randall Jarell

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

  
Breakfast wasn't over, but no one really felt like eating anymore. Everyone was looking at Ranma for some sort of explanation, but Ranma, being clueless as usual, couldn't give one. Adding to Ranma's discomfort was the pain of the red mark on her arm where she had pinched herself.

"Honestly, how could you think this is a dream? And that's a pretty stupid way of finding out...RanKO!" Akane had suddenly remembered she was mad at Ranma.

"It's not stupid, it works! Last night I had this dream, see, and-"

"That's nice, Ranma, but what does that have to do with you changing forms without water?" Nabiki interrupted, hoping to stave off the inevitable Akane versus Ranma match until SOME information was gleaned.

"Well, it was a pretty important dream!"

"Really? What was it about?" Nabiki asked with three parts sarcasm and one part genuine curiosity.

"Er... I don't know. It revealed some inner truth about something and foreshadowed something else... All I really remember is that when I pinched myself I knew I was dreaming and I woke up."

A chorus of groans sounded around the table. "And this is relevant because..." Nabiki prodded.

"Alright! So it was just a stupid dream! I was just sayin'..." Ranma saw Nabiki's icy stare and gulped. "Look, I don't know what's going on any more than you do. I didn't even realize I changed until 'Hapantisai' glomped me."

"You shrunk a foot and grew breasts! How could you not notice that?!" Akane never could get over the idea that Ranma was more or less oblivious to the actual change of his curse. Ranma never adequately explained this to her, and now he was too distracted by Tendo-san's snickering to respond. So was everyone else for that matter.

"What is it, Tendo?" Genma asked his friend.

"Oh, heh heh, nothing just... Ha-panti-sai, eight panties together, heh heh HA! That's a good one! That the sort of joke that my Kimi-chan would... WAAAAH!" Soun's words became an incoherent blubbering. No one else was that amused.

The room seemed to crackle with emotional energy. Around Akane, it was like a blast furnace. _That BASTARD! He made my father cry! He reminded him of mom! I'M supposed to remind him of mom! The NERVE! _

Meanwhile Nabiki was earning her reputation of being an ice queen. She stared coldly at her father for a while, then her attention returned to Ranma: "Ranma. You know something. You've got to. This isn't the first time you've done this."

"It isn't?" Ranma's question trailed off at the end as she became distracted by something. Between Nabiki and Akane, where Ranma sat, there was an odd sort of wind- a wind that was not a wind. This wind started showing up only a week ago, during Nodoka's last visit. For some reason, Akane and Nabiki had an argument that day... This odd wind struck Ranma as familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She just knew she didn't like it. Acting instinctively, she turned to Akane and said the first thing that came to her mind: "What're you starin' at ya uncute tomboy?"

"RANMA NO BAKA!" Akane replied as her trusty hammer materialized in her hand. It shortly found its way to the cranium of one Ranma Saotome. It left and returned again many times, leaving large throbbing lumps as presents. 

_Birdies like presents.  
Especially space birdies,  
     Chasing pretty stars._

As Ranma slipped out of consciousness, Genma asked, "You say this isn't the first time Ranma's done this? How do you know?"

Nabiki sighed, and the tension in the room eased somewhat. She'd have to show them the tape. She was hoping to show Ranma the tape after school and get him to pay money for her keep it from his "friends," but now that the cat was out of the bag she was going to have to put this particular card on the table. She ate one last bite of her breakfast, then she said, "I'll be in the living room in five." She ran up the steps to her room to record videotape from the laptop.

A few seconds later, Ranma came to. There was a splitting headache, realizing where she was, and... there was still a curious feeling in her chest. Her breasts seemed to tingle. This was too weird. "I need ta get some hot water" Ranma stated, getting up.

"You shouldn't need water, baka." Akane supplied, her anger having diminished considerably, but not completely.

"Hey! That's right! I can change without water! Yay!" Onna-Ranma danced around, as she started singing "Never gonna be a girl again Never gonna be a girl again!"

"Hey, baka! You're a girl NOW!"

"Oh, er...right." Ranma stood still for a long moment concentrating.

Petals from the trees fell like snowflakes around the Tendo home.

A koi jumped in the pond, flashing its scales in the sunlight, and making a soft sploosh sound when it hit the water.

The semi sang their buzzing song, as is their wont to do in the hot days of late summer.

Many people were starting to leave their houses for work while others were just getting up. A lot of these people would have killed to be able to simply sit around watching somebody trying to change their sex with their mind. Akane wasn't one of these people.

"C'mon, Ranma hurry up and change!" Akane said impatiently

"Yeah, well you see..."

"You can't, can you?" Akane smirked evilly. "Don't worry, RanKO being a girl isn't that bad, I'm sure we can find some pretty dresses for you to wear."

"Shut up, Akane!"

"Oh is it that time of the month for you RanKO? I'm so sorry! Or maybe your PANTIES are the wrong size?"

Ranma just looked at Akane, confused. "Why are you doing this?" she asked finally. These weren't Akane's usual insults. She was stabbing exposed flesh and it hurt. Ranma could stand a little of it from Ryoga, she could always come back with some remark about P-chan, but this was Akane, her fiancée. Her eyes glistened. She had to do something or she would cry. Desperately, she tried to cool her ki. Slowly, it started to work.

"Oh! Am I hurting your feelings, RanKO? Are you going to cry? Why don't you run to mommy, she'll make it all better! She couldn't possibly want to kill you after seeing what a wonderful little daughter you've become. Her pretty little prin-"

Ranma snapped her head up. She was not far enough into the soul of ice for this not to affect her. "AaaaaaaaarrrrrRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" Ranma's growl became a yell loud enough to shake the walls. A powerful yell. Not a scream. Gods, not a scream. "STOP IT AKANE! You're NOT helping!"

Some part of Akane told her she had gone too far, but she was enjoying herself too much to care. Finally, there was something that got to Ranma, some weakness she could probe just like he had all of hers. Even better, Ranma had not retaliated yet. This was too good to pass up! "You're a girlie girl! Such a girlie girlie girl! Even when you're male!" Akane said in singsong while dancing around a fuming Ranma. She didn't notice her father's beet-red countenance, or Genma's stony glare. All she saw was Ranma, female and in an apron, getting praised by his mother for being such a good cook. He could cook. He had a mother, but was he grateful? No! She could accept it the first few times, but it had been going on for a year now. Ranma was still hiding, afraid of a little disembowelment, when Akane would have faced much worse for even a month with her own mother back. She repeated the tease again, the singsong quality turning into a dark chant as her voice filled with venom: "You're a girlie girl! Such a girlie girlie girl! Even when you're male!".

Nabiki slowed her descent down the steps as she heard Akane's words. She could see Ranma through the staircase banister, and he wasn't taking it well. She hesitated a moment more before going down the rest of the steps. "Akane-chan! That was a haiku! You're not becoming a Kuno are you?"

That shut Akane up real fast. Her eyes shot to Nabiki. She was smirking subtly as she leaned against the wall by the steps, videocassette in hand. _Is she taking Ranma's side??_

Nabiki saw no one was moving, and she was anxious to get out of Akane's glare so she motioned the group to the living room with her hand "Shall we?" Everyone was grateful for the distraction. __

As the two families walked to the living room, Soun turned to Genma: "Accept my appologies, Saotome. Akanechan's never acted so dishonorably before." He said this very loudly so Akane could hear him.

Genma's face softened somewhat at this and he thought for a moment before replying. Didn't Ranma do much the same thing to Akane? He had eased a debt of honor to Kasumi, but had he ever done the same for Akane? And wasn't she supposed to be his fiancée? "It's all right Tendo... I think Ranma had it coming" Genma stated finally, matching Soun's volume and hoping that Ranma would take the hint.

Both Ranma and Akane heard all of this. Akane, after the cold shock of what her father had said about her wore off, took what Genma said to heart and she started to smile. Ranma, on the other hand, simply viewed this as new information not as important as what she was thinking about now and filed it in the "agonize over later" section of her brain. When the two families sat down in front of the TV Genma and Soun saw an ironic tableau as Akane sat with a confident smirk while Ranma, sitting as far away from Akane as conveniently possible, had a face that showed an odd mix of anger, confusion, and determination.. This was not the reaction Soun and Genma had been hoping for.

Ranma tried to reign in her thoughts. _How could Akane do this?! After all we've been through! She really must hate me..._ She could feel the tears threaten to drop from her eyes  _No__, I will not cry. I've got to calm down, think this through. BUT SHE'S MY FIANCEE! It doesn't matter. YES IT DOES! Why? It's not like... I love her... or anything...maybe... It doesn't matter. Nothing matters. It's all just a game, a challenge. I just got to figure out how to win. No... There's no way I can win. I just have to figure out how to get hurt the least._

 Ranma's hot red aura cooled until it was a dim midnight blue. The manifestation of her emotion had changed from that of someone who had just had a loved one insult them to that of someone who didn't give a damn. _Alright, I changed without water. What else do I know? I first got the feeling of it from when Happosai groped me. How does that usually happen? He jumps in the room, splashes water on me, yells "Sweeto!", and glomps me. What was different this time? He didn't splash water on me... He must have known this would happen, unless it was... no it couldn't have been her. When did I change exactly? Was it before or after Happosai said "Sweeto?" ...It has to be his fault. He'll probably come back, wait until I don't seem to be expecting anything, and glomp me after which he'll explain just enough of his plan so he can gloat without revealing anything useful. Why hasn't he come back yet? He's probably here already._

Ranma closed her eyes as she tried to think of where the pervert might be hiding. She felt a tingling over her left shoulder._ He's over there. Should I surprise him? Yes, that would be amusing..._

While Ranma was thinking, Nabiki was rewinding the tape. Finally she pressed stop and looked at her audience. "Alright, I was looking through the security cameras this morning when I saw this..." She pressed play. The image was of Ranma, male and walking into the view of the kitchen camera. He opened the cabinet door and reached for a pan but misjudged the distance causing the contents of the cabinet to fall. As he picked up the pots and pans and placed what he didn't need back into the cabinet, he became shorter, his hair changed color, and he became a she.

"Honestly, you couldn't tell you turned into a girl?!" Akane was looking right at Ranma. Ranma was staring off into space. "Hey RanKO! Did you hear me?"

"Hmm?" Ranma turned toward Akane, intentionally giving Happosai a straight shot to her breasts. Soon she sensed movement. "Pardon me a second." Happosai was heading straight for Ranma's bosom when Ranma, using the speed of her chestnut fist, brought her hand up and circled a spiral around Happosai's body stopping in the center. Happosai's hot, lustful ki reacted with Ranma's cold, indifferent ki and he was thrown back and through the wall. "Now, what were you saying?"

"...." Akane replied, stunned. She slowly turned her attention back to Nabiki.

Ranma glared at Akane from across the room. _I wonder what would happen if I just... smacked her. Real hard..._

Tendo Soun glanced at the hole in the wall somewhat impressed and turned to Nabiki. Happosai flying through parts of the house was a fairly normal occurrence after all. "But Ranma was male when I saw him. What happened?"

_Hmm...__ she always asks me to hit her when we spar. I could end that, say by breaking her jaw..._

_Nice shot, there Ranma! Nabiki thought before answering her father's question. "Well that's the funny part...watch this!" Nabiki fast-forwarded to the scene of Ranma and her talking about the teakettle._

_Or I could just kill her..._

The TV showed Onna-Ranma lifting the teakettle up, changing into Otoko-Ranma, and then pouring hot water on himself. Nabiki rewound it again and played the scene in slow motion. Female, then male, then hot water. "He was male a full seven seconds before he started pouring!" Nabiki said smiling. Genma looked confused. Soun looked relieved, presumably because the engagement was still on.

_I could chop her into little pieces and hide them somewhere..._

Akane turned to look at Ranma ready to tease her soundly for being such a baka... but her words lodged in her throat. Ranma was staring at her. Through her. Like she was nothing. "R-Ranma? Why are you... staring at me like that?"

_NO! WHAT AM I... no, it's too much trouble. And it wouldn't be all that amusing. I'd better check up on the midget. Ranma got up and walked toward Happosai, not even giving Akane a response. She casually knocked down the rest of the section of wall the pervert had been thrown through._

The others followed Ranma out of the hole. They were all wondering what was going on. They didn't expect to see Happosai still there. He was lying face down in front of a tree next to the koi pond.The massive gouges in the rocky soil of the ground leading up to the tree were testament to the Herculean effort Happosai exerted in arresting his motion. "Oi, wrinkle face, are you enjoying your nap?" It was quite obvious Happosai was unconscious. Ranma kicked him lightly in the head. "Wake up, old fool."

"Uunnnghh...Ranma?" a red, black, and flesh colored blur, seemed to move its head in a slight nod. Happosai felt horrible and knew there was a nice quick way to fix his problem. He moved to prepare for a glomp, only to find that both his legs were broken. "Iiiiiite! H- how?" Happosai noticed the other blurs that had gathered around him and Ranma. He recognized a brown and black one as Soun Tendo, meaning the white blur was Genma Saotome. They had both tried in vain to defeat him, but this boy, no worse; this GIRL defeated him soundly, and in mere seconds. It wasn't a real match, and Ranma had just taken him by surprise, but still... Ranma would have to pay for this embarrassment.

"Did I forget to say it?" Ranma asked, disinterest apparent. "Hiryuu Shoten Ha revised, Tobu Sennuki." (flying corkscrew)

Happosai's vision cleared. "Where did you learn THAT, and how did you know where I was going to be?"

Akane couldn't help herself: "Women's intuition?" she provided with a smirk.

Ranma almost lost her composure. _What is WITH Akane! WHY is she DOING this! It doesn't matter. She's just another part of this sick game. I could kill her and it wouldn't matter. Deal with Happosai. How did I know where he was going to be? ... Must be another benefit of the soul of ice. I need information from him, but... I need something to threaten him with. He doesn't know how much I know. I'll bluff._ "There is more where that came from, jijii, and much worse. As for how I knew where you were... You have become rather predictable in your old age. Now, are you going to tell me what you did to me or do I have to give you a further demonstration of how much I have learned?" Her face was an emotionless mask.

Happosai's eyes widened further. Ranma's face was NEVER an emotionless mask. "You're not Ranma. You can't possibly be Ranma. Who are you?"

There was a very uncomfortable pause after this. They all saw that Ranma wasn't acting normal. They heard Happosai's question and wondered. The seconds passed by like hours. It was 7:59.

7:59:01

Soun Tendo felt depressed. Things were beyond his control once again. All he wanted was for his daughters and his friend to be happy, but even though this seemed like a humble enough request, he was continually denied his wish. He found himself wondering, as he had many times during Ranma's stay at the Tendo home, and especially when Nodoka started her visits, what his wife Kimiko would have done. When they were together they had their own complications, such was the burden of a family of martial artists, but Kimiko always seemed to have a way of settling things with a wonderful mix of kindness, wit, and when needed, fighting ability. He was almost glad when his two eldest daughters gave up the Art, because that meant fewer conflicts. Conflicts he had great trouble easing without... his beautiful Kimi-chan.

7:59:12

As Soun cried rivers from his eyes, Genma Saotome had his own worries. He was worried that he was losing his son. For ten years, Genma was Ranma's sensei, and as far as he could tell, he had done a good job. Ranma had mastered every technique Genma had taught him and more. Still, Genma wished sometimes that he could have been more of a father as well. Unfortunately, he had the bad karma* of being an idiot, a kleptomaniac, and a coward. He was, as he would sometimes explain to Soun over sake, a simple man. If it hadn't been for his own father's nasty gambling habit, or Happosai, who gained custody of him as a result of the gambling habit, he would probably be working in construction, or maybe working with horses like his grandfather did. As it was, all he knew was how to make bad decisions and martial arts, and a fair amount of his martial arts training had stemmed from stealing and cheating and well... making bad decisions. He wanted something better for Ranma, and he just didn't know how to do that as a father.

Knowing this, he was often surprised at how well Ranma turned out. To help out Kasumi like that... Sometimes Genma wanted to march Ranma right up to Nodoka and dare her to call him unmanly. Then, he'd see how he was with Akane, and he'd wonder if he should get the tantos sharpened. But, all in all, Genma was proud of Ranma. He was always quick to laugh and had an air of confidence that somehow made others more confident as well. Torment after torment, Ranma took it like a man, and dealt with it. Genma was hard on his son. He felt he had to be. He couldn't allow Ranma to become too weak or the world would crush his spirit. And that's what Genma liked the best about Ranma. His spirit never seemed to falter, never seemed to weaken... Until now. Now he saw coldness in his son's eyes, where before, there had been warmth. Where Ranma would have joked about Happosai's perversion or cheer over his victory he now only gave a sneer. There was another thing, though. His son usually only acted to protect himself or help others. Happosai was a devil of a man, and if he was killed it wouldn't have bothered Genma in the least, but Ranma was acting...cruel. Almost...evil. The nekoken, Jusenkyo, they were terrible, but Ranma worked through them. This, however, was almost too much... Genma set his jaw and tried to be brave for his son, but he was afraid, and it showed.

7:59:23

Her father crying and Uncle Saotome white as a sheet, Akane turned to look at Ranma again. She was beginning to wonder if perhaps things were a little more serious than she had thought. Ranma had so many problems that they seemed to become commonplace if no less distracting, like the weather or traffic. So when Ranma's curse changed, Akane saw no reason to stop her ruthless teasing. So what if she had laid the insults on pretty thick? Uncle was right; Ranma deserved it... But she had not expected THIS. The way that Ranma looked at her back in the living room... She could understand being a little upset, but Ranma was being down right SCARY. She had seen how he blew Happosai away without even seeming to notice. She remembered the times when she sparred with him. Akane couldn't even touch him! Ranma was an almost unstoppable force, and suddenly... Akane wasn't so sure he was on her side. _What have I done?_

7:59:30

Nabiki had been noting something strange about how Ranma was acting all this morning. He seemed to be going through extreme mood swings. When she first saw him cooking he was confident and determined, like he was during a tough fight. Then he used the soul of ice technique and he was cold and distant, but even more so than usual, and she could swear there was a tinge of depression. Then his father talked to him saying that he could cook with out being unmanly and he was deliriously happy. Maybe she was just imagining it, but each emotion was just a notch or two over the top. And after he found out about the change in the curse... He was deep in the soul of ice when she had come down the steps. She could tell that just by his face. Then, right before he surprised Happosai there was a change. It was very subtle. A corner of his mouth raised just a small amount, his eyes became half-lidded... At the time Nabiki dismissed it, but... then when he walked out of the room the way he walked was... different.

The way he looked at Akane and was now looking at Happosai... it was not Ranma, but it was familiar. When she saw Ranma bluff she knew something was wrong. He had come up with the Tobu Sennuki on the fly. That she was sure of, and he would normally boast about being able to beat Happosai. However, usually he sounded like he believed it. Now, it was as if he knew that what he said wasn't true. He was lying. On purpose. Even though Nabiki could detect this, she was pretty sure no one else would. It was excellently pulled off, but... Ranma was usually a terrible liar. For some reason, Ranma wasn't acting like Ranma at all. He was acting like... and then Nabiki recognized why Ranma's behavior seemed so familiar. She looked at Ranma's cool calculating expression, at the hint of cruelty in his eyes, at the face that seemed to hold no clear emotion. She looked at this face and saw...herself_. No, I'm mistaken. There's no way that could happen. Business, Nabiki. Think business. How can you turn a profit?_ Nabiki's ki grew cold... but not before a lone tear ran down her cheek.

7:59:42

Kasumi snored softly as she dreamt. She seemed very happy in another world with no worries. "I love you, To-kun," she whispered in her sleep.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
_Tofu Ono stands in a clearing in a park. Patches of brightly colored flowers pepper the emerald grass with rainbow light. Above, the sky is blue, and fluffy clouds seem to dance politely for the sun's affection. Tendo Kasumi runs to Tofu, embracing him. They kiss passionately as the world spins around them; their love filling them until they feel they will burst, then they disengage and fall to the ground in each other's arms. "To-kun..."_

_ "Yes, Kasumi-chan?"_

_ "I love you so much... please wait for me just a little longer?"_

_ "I'll wait as long as it takes for you, my love, even though it's agony. But Kasumi-chan..."_

_ "Yes?" Her eyes look up at his._

_ "You know this is just a dream, right? It may not be like this in real life."_

_ Yes, it's only a dream. This is not Ono Tofu but a construct she had created to help her through her problems. Her eyes close. "Please let me have my illusions. The world can be so cruel..."_

_ "As you wish, my love."_

_ She sighs happily and rests her back on the cool grass beside her love. Her eyes open and she gazes at the clouds above her smiling. Her expression changes suddenly to one of surprised confusion. "To-kun! There's a disturbance! Someone close to us is beginning the Ijuu!" She watches as one of the clouds takes the shape of a pigtailed boy's head. "Oh my! It's Ranma! What am I going to do?"_

_ "He has to find his own way, dear"_

_ "I know, but it's so awful what he's going through. I knew he was nicer this morning, but I had no idea! I should have talked with him..."_

_ "You were exhausted, and there was no way you could have known that he would be going through the Ijuu."_

_ "I know...I just wish I knew what to do!"_

_ "Ease his pain, Kasumi-chan, that's all you can do. Be there for him... like you were for me."_

_ "And as you were for me," Kasumi is confused for a moment. That wasn't something a construct of her subconscious would say... Then again, she wasn't an expert on subconscious constructs, having only one. The clouds now form the faces of Kasumi's family. She knows that they too depend on Ranma's success. "What if...what if Ranma fails?" She turns her head so that her worried expression is pointed at Tofu._

_ "Then I'd expect anything from world domination to mass suicide, mass suicide being more likely." Tofu said smiling._

_ "Oh my!"_

_ "Don't worry Kasumi-chan this is Ranma we're talking about, he never loses a fight."_

_ "Yes, To-kun, I suppose you're right, but now Ranma's fighting himself and... kiss me quick To-kun I have to go." Tofu complies willingly. An eternity of joy passes in a moment and Tofu releases her, smiling sadly._

_ "What are you to me, Kasumi? Are you and I 'special friends?'"_

_ Kasumi laughs. They played this game ever since Tofu's mother showed up a while back. "Oh my no!" she replies, playing along. Then, more softly: "We're lovers." She kisses him again and gets up. "I have to go, To-kun, my REM cycle is almost over."_

_ "Yes, I know. Kasumi-chan?"_

_ "Yes, To-kun?" She asks smiling._

_ "I love you, and remember," he grows somber, quoting "'Only one power...'"_

_ Kasumi grows serious for a moment as well: "'Only one power...'" She smiles softly as the world fades away "I love you, To-kun"_

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Kasumi's eyes stopped moving as much and she breathed more heavily as she moved from the semiconscious state of dreaming to the oblivion of deep sleep. The smile on her face did not disappear.

7:59:59

"Who are you?" Happosai had asked. If the old master had phrased the words any differently Ranma would have ignored them without a thought, but he said those words exactly. Exactly the same words that Ranma's false reflection said in the dream. Ranma's growing sense of Déjà vu was enough to warm her soul of ice a little.

8:00:00

Nabiki's watch beeped signaling the hour and breaking the silence that held Ranma and the others in reverie. Ranma looked at the gouges in the ground, the felled tree, Happosai with his legs broken and bleeding...Bleeding. Ranma had never seen the old man bleed before. _Who am I? How did I do this? WHY did I do it? I could have just kicked him through the roof like normal and... It doesn't matter. Like HELL it doesn't matter! I broke his LEGS! I never wanted to hurt him THAT badly. Maybe he won't bother me anymore. I should just ask him again while he can't get away. He's nothing but an old, perverted, bastard. He's a HUMAN BEING! Of course, he never really helped me that I can remember and as for being human, Pops and Mr. Tendo seem to think otherwise. But I still shouldn't have reacted so violently! That's not me! And what about Akane?!! I was thinking of KILLING her! GODS what the hell is happening to me! AND WHY AM I STILL A GIRL?_ Ranma's aura abruptly turned from freezing to blazing hot in a matter of seconds. It started burning, allowing it to be seen by the naked eye as a red fire surrounding Ranma. She balled her hands into fists and reared back her head, belting out a deafening...yell. Definitely a yell. Girls scream; guys yell. It's a very powerful "Get the hell away from me, cause I'm pissed." kind of thing. Yeah.

Everything was quiet. Ranma, growing aware of the stares she was getting from everyone, became a little nervous. "Ranma Saotome... That's who I am. You can stop worryin' now."

An audible sigh of relief escaped the lips of nearly everyone there. "Ranma... are you okay?" The voice was Akane's. A nice Akane's. To Ranma, it sounded like "Do you want to be friends?" Those words had made Ranma feel so good that first day in the Tendo home, when everyone else had rubbed her curse in her face. Akane asked again: "Are you alright Ranma?" The words were beautiful, a song from heaven. _How could I have thought of killing her not five minutes ago??? Everything was okay now. Akane cared. She CARED. Ranma would get through this, and then everything would be normal again._

"Um... yeah. I'm fine," Ranma finally responded, a smile forming on her lips. Her aura turned bright blue as a familiar confidence returned to her. "Hear that, ya old perv?" She asked turning towards Happosai's broken body, "I'm fine. Bet ya thought I'd be cryin' and mopin' like a girl or somethin' didn't ya? Well I'm fine and you got two broke legs, so I guess your little plan didn't work, huh?"

"What plan?" asked Happosai, grimacing through the pain.

"You know what I'm talkin' bout! You did something to me and I want to know what it is!"

The old master's eyes widened, then he started crying: "Have pity on an old man, whoever you are!"

"Oh cut that out, freak. I know you're fakin'. Are ya gonna tell me what you did to me or am I gonna have to break your arms, too?"

"Alright! I'll tell you everything!" There was a short pause as Happosai tried to sit up, crossed his eyes in pain and fell back onto his back.

Ranma saw the old man's blood again. "Um, wait a minute. You're gonna be okay right? You're not gonna die or nothin' are ya?"

"Phah! Of course not!" Happosai sat up quickly and smiled. Ranma was back... and he could be manipulated.

"Well then spill the beans already!"

"Not without just compensation."

"Oh come on! I just broke your legs!"

"And now you want me to give you information, Not exactly a fair trade is it, girl?"

"Hey, who ya callin' a girl?"

"You. You've got a feminine aura. Only girls have feminine auras."

"Nani?!" Akane asked out loud, her astonishment making her forget her fear: "You mean Ranma's REALLY a girl?"

Ranma's ki grew colder... Images of mutilated Akanes started going through her head. They were oddly...soothing...

Suddenly she snapped out of it. "Oh no you don't! I see what you're doin', tryin' to make me go psycho again, well it won't work. Just tell me what you want and I'll see about givin' it to you... AFTER you tell me what you did."

"I want you to show me how you did that Tobu Sennuki move..." Ranma's eyes widened a bit. She was sure the old master would ask for something perverted. "...wearing this" Happosai pulled out a filmy negligee. Ranma sighed and punched Happosai's head soundly.

"I'll show ya tha move but I ain't gonna wear that. Now spill 'em."

You break an old man's heart!" Happosai cried but when Ranma raised her fist again he bowed his head and spoke. "You remember when I split your male and female halves?"

"Yeah..." That had been scary. She had accepted her curse. She was happy with it even. For a while. Then Happosai split her male and female parts. Unfortunately, it didn't work quite the way it was supposed to, and her female side turned into a spirit of pure evil. The incense had split the good and evil of Ranma along with the male and female. If it hadn't been for the others, Ranma would have become a slave to her evil side. She didn't know before then that that part of her existed. For weeks afterward she had nightmares of looking in the mirror and seeing her female face contorted in an expression of cold wrath. She went back to her old sensitivity, not letting anyone even suggest that she was a girl, even when it was an honest mistake. She had gotten better since then. She had to. With her mother coming every weekend she would have gone insane if she hadn't adapted to being called a girl. She never forgot, though. "...yeah, I remember."

Happosai remembered too. It would have been perfect, had it worked. "This time, I was determined to get it right..."

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
"So let me get this straight," Ranma had heard Happosai's story and wasn't impressed, "You thought that if you burned another incense before you burned the personality splitter you'd do better, but you didn't know how this OTHER incense would work. So you made it up, brought it to my room, and burned it."

The others had brought the rest of their breakfasts outside and were now sipping tea and listening, not having missed anything.

"Right, I burned anti-nightmare incense. I thought the Yin Yang Thank You Ma'am Personality Splitter might've been affected by your nightmares.  
Happosai was smug.

"You didn't even use the actual Personality Splitter?"

"Nope. Just the anti-nightmare incense. It didn't work so I didn't do anything else."

"It didn't even work???"

"Nope, your dreams were as scary as ever." _Which doesn't make sense._ He should have had complete control over what he was dreaming...__

"But... that doesn't explain anything!!!"

"That's all that I did to you." _Last night anyway_ Happosai added mentally.

Ranma was...incensed. "Why do I have a feminine aura right now? Why did I change without water?"

"You can change without water?"

"Yeah, well sort of," Ranma said, confused. She was sure that it was Happosai who caused the trigger of her curse to change.

"Why are you still female?"

"Because I'm generating feminine ki, jackass!" Ranma's eyes widened. She hadn't made that connection before, but when she said it, it sounded right. "I mean, I think that's why. Maybe. You didn't know I changed without water?"

_."No, you were female when I first saw you... but I'm not surprised. It was ...only a matter of time, girl."_

"Hey stop callin' me a girl already!...What do you mean 'it was only a matter of time?'"

"I am bound by honor to say no more."

"Honor? Ha! You call feelin' up girls honorable?"

Happosai looked thoughtful for a moment. Finally he said, "Forget our old deal, I don't care about corkscrews anyway. I'll offer a new deal. Agree to be my student for just five minutes, wherein you will call me sensei and treat me with respect, and I'll tell you something you'll need to know."

Ranma considered. _Five minutes... what could it hurt? Even if he is a perverted bastard... I've got to know what he's talking about _"Alright...sensei. You're on."

"Excellent. Now, put this on." Happosai grinned widely as he produced the negligee again.

"Oh come on!"

"Respect!"

Ranma kicked herself mentally for not seeing this coming. "Yes sensei," She said with a grimace. She took the garment and started to pull it over her head.

"Remove your other clothes first!"

_Damn! "You know, in America they call this sexual harassment."_

"Respect!"

"Just lettin' ya know...sensei." Ranma looked around, remembering that things weren't exactly private. She caught Nabiki innocently setting up her camera whistling a tuneless ditty. Akane was smiling evilly. Soun and Genma were arranging themselves in various poses of grief and dismay. They had all been enthralled by Ranma and Happosai's conversation. "Could you all...um go away or turn around or somethin'?"

Genma and Soun ran inside. Akane took a moment to say something along the lines of "Hmmph, look who's got feminine modesty all of a sudden," under her breath before following. Nabiki kept whistling as she adjusted the focus on the camera lens.

"You too, Nabiki."

"Huh? Come on, Ranma, its not like there's anything I haven't seen before."

"Just go will ya?"

"1000 yen." Nabiki replied.

Ranma had an idea: "Fine. Stay." She used the chestnut fist to get out of her clothes and into the negligee. All that anyone watching could see was a blur. Then she paused just long enough for Happosai to see that she was indeed wearing the garment. Then she blurred back into her Chinese outfit, whereupon Nabiki's camera clicked.

"Hey no fair!" Nabiki and Happosai shouted almost in tandem.

"You didn't say for how long, sensei." Ranma said with a smile. Ranma could always think on her feet. The soul of ice just helped her focus. Ranma's smile dimmed. It also evidently turned her into a psychopath.

"Put on the garment again. This is to be your uniform throughout the rest of my time as your sensei."

_Damn. Oh well, I've worn worse. "Yes, sensei." She blurred back into the negligee._

"Whoa mama!" Exclaimed Happosai. Nabiki's camera clicked again. Ranma sighed.

"She looks very pretty, wouldn't you say, Nabiki?"

"Just what are you suggesting?" Nabiki demanded of the old midget. She wanted it clear that she was an indifferent photographer, not a lesbian voyeur.

"Nothing, m'dear. Just, in your professional opinion, would you say that Ranma looks pretty?"

"Oh... well sure, Ranma's pretty, a knockout even, that's why the photos sell so well."

Ranma always took a certain pride in that. If you had to be a girl half the time you should at least be a pretty one. She smiled in spite of herself.

"Thank you, Nabiki, you may ~leave~." Nabiki left with an odd expression on her face. Happosai turned to Ranma "You're feeling very feminine now aren't you?" Happosai's words were said flatly, with a tinge of finality.

"Yes." Ranma said without thinking.

"Good. Now, take that feeling, and try to push it all into your right hand."

Intrigued, Ranma did as the old master asked. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to manipulate the odd tingly feeling in her chest. She pushed it to her shoulder, down her arm... It tried to snap back to her chest but she was persistent until finally it was all concentrated in her right hand. Slowly, she opened her eyes. Her hand glowed a soft pink.

"Well done! Now take my hand." Happosai's hand glowed a pastel blue.

_Male ki._ "Yes, sensei." She grasped the small wrinkled hand. There was sucking sensation in her palm. Instinctively she pulled her hand away... to discover an apple resting in Happosai's.

"Thank you, my dear." Happosai nonchalantly took a bite out of the fruit. He chewed and swallowed while Ranma stared dumbfounded. "All things," he said holding the apple as a model to his student, "exist in the boundary between opposites: Light and Dark, Good and Evil, Yin and Yang, Male... and Female. There is no perfect light, nor a perfect dark. No absolute good or evil. The same goes for all the others. A coin cannot have only one side. Until you have both sides you have an idea, an imaginary thing, a potentiality. An apple is formed naturally from the male stamen of its flower pollinating its feminine pistol. I provided a completely male apple, and you supplied the feminine ki needed to make it whole... It's quite tasty if I do say so myself." The old man took another bite, smiling.

"I...I don't understand. How can an apple be male or female?"

Happosai swallowed. "How can a coin be heads or tails? It doesn't matter, except to show that the apple can only exist when both the masculine and the feminine are present. That is what you must know: that your femininity as well as you masculinity is not only a part of you, but an essential... and very powerful part."

"I guess that why you glomp me all the time huh?"

Happosai's eyes thinned as he took another bite of the apple. _Just when you think the kid's a brainless twit..._ He took his time chewing as he thought of how to answer. He let the sweet juicy pulp slide down his throat, infusing his body with the excess healing feminine energies from Ranma's ki. "Do you know why I tend to leave Nabiki and Kasumi alone?" he asked Ranma finally.

"No, I don't. I wondered about that a couple times, you know, when I wasn't busy kickin' your ass...er...sensei."

Happosai let Ranma's boast pass. "I'm going to tell you this, because I might be required to, but before I do you must swear on your honor you will tell nobody and I mean NOBODY about it. Do you swear?"

Ranma was learning to hate making promises. Promises always had a tendency to bite you in the ass when you weren't looking. For instance: the promise not to reveal Ryoga's curse. Result: Akane thinking Ranma was even more of a pervert than before. And though Ranma had little to do with it there was always that damned promise to commit seppuku that loomed over her head every time her mother visited. This made Ranma consider very seriously not swearing as Happosai wanted, but... she was more than a little curious. Still, she would be careful: "I, Saotome Rank- RANMA... swear on my honor that I won't WILLINGLY blab about what you are about say to anyone... UNLESS keepin' the secret could hurt someone."

"I suppose that will do"  _I'll__ probably see more of this annoying carefulness in the future, between his mother, Nabiki, and the Amazons... "I don't bother Nabiki and Kasumi because they don't have enough masculine ki."_

"You mean fem-"

"I mean masculine ki."

"Girls have masculine auras? I thought you said..."

"Auras are masculine or feminine depending on which type of ki is more dominant, but no one's ki is completely masculine or feminine. Nabiki and Kasumi don't have enough masculine ki to discharge the feminine ki. They won't fight back. Nabiki might actually have a lot of ki, being a former martial artist and all, but she simply looks disgusted or... amused and goes about her business if I glomp her."

"And Kasumi?" Ranma couldn't imagine someone glomping Kasumi, but wasn't she a former martial artist too? And wasn't Happosai a perverted bastard?

"I am honor bound not to answer that question."

"There you go again. Look, I'm still confused. Why do you bother Akane and me so much? There are plenty of other violent girls out there. What about Shampoo?"

"It has to do with how the ki is released. Feminine ki is very cohesive. I can absorb all I want but if it isn't cut off from the rest of the feminine ki by will or a spurt of masculine energy, I can't pull it away from the body. On the other hand, if I get attacked right away, I don't have enough time to collect enough feminine ki. Shampoo has a lot of ki, but she won't let me get near her usually. You may easily beat Shampoo in most martial arts, but when it comes to avoiding a glomp, she has you completely outclassed. And before you ask, Ukyo is far too masculine unless you're around, and Kodachi's ki is tainted with madness. Not that I wouldn't glomp them if the opportunity presented itself, but why would I if I've got you or Akane? Of course there are other ways of getting feminine ki. Panty raids for instance. I could also just infuse a completely masculine apple with feminine ki from a willing assistant, but that gives me a massive amount of ki and I only do that if I need to heal myself or something." Happosai bit out of the apple and chewed for a bit. "Besides," he continued, "the other ways are more fun."

_He was manipulating me all along! Ranma was starting to get angry "But why do you even need feminine ki? Don't you have some of your own?"_

"As the body grows older, ki levels drop. It is ki that keeps the body from degradation, and it is most effective when all of its energies are balanced. There are different ways of balancing ki energies. Some people use their work as a way of burning off the excess ki. Others find a mate that compliments their imbalances with equal and opposite imbalances. People who have near perfect equilibrium, usually priests and nuns and such but not always, live longer, but eventually their ki levels drop too low and the stress on their bodies causes them to die. I was always severely deficient in female ki, and if I didn't pursue my passion, I would have died long ago. Since I learned to absorb feminine ki I have managed to live a normal lifespan, and since absorbing all that ki gave me so much excess energy, I have lived longer than any human on record. Now, however, I need feminine ki to survive. I'm just lucky that I had learned the Amazon method of hibernation by the time your father and Soun had tricked me into that cave."

"Yeah... lucky... Still, surely there are other girls that respond the way you need them to."

"Well, I don't want to abandon the inheritors of the School of Anything Goes, but the main reason is that you and Akane have the highest ki levels of anyone I've ever met in my long life."

"Me... AND Akane?"

"Yes she actually has slightly more ki than you but is just a little too masculine for my taste."

"Wait, no you're turning it around right? I have more ki but I'm more masculine..."

"Well then why would I have 'bothered' you so much more? Akane's always been female and she's used to people groping her so she gets angry and fights back right away. You, girl, never got used to being female and so when I fondled you there were always a few more precious seconds of feeling violated before you punted me, completing the ki transaction. You keep your femininity so locked up, it's like opening the floodgates whenever I glomp you. Then your masculine ki practically slams it all into me... exquisite." Happosai finished the apple and tossed it into the brush by the koi pond.

"You're a monster...sensei."

"You don't need to call me that anymore, the five minutes are up." And with that Happosai leapt onto his perfectly healed legs and started bouncing to the house

Ranma gaped for a few seconds. Then she recovered, "Hey wait! How do I do the apple thing? How's what you said s'posed to help me?"

"I'm not you're sensei anymore. I don't train girls." Happosai called back

Ranma ran catching up to the master. "Hey, I ain't a girl!"

"....." Happosai replied, stopping in the doorway of the house.

"And even if I were..., what about Hinakosensei? You trained her didn't you?"

Happosai stopped for a moment in the doorway his back still toward Ranma: "That... was a mistake. I thought she was too young for it to matter." _Good, now he'll try to contact Hinako and when he finds out she doesn't know anything he'll practically beg me to train him. This is going to work... just as long as __Cologne__ doesn't get her hands on him. I'll have to be careful though. The bitch broke my legs! Just like a woman... That whelp really gets me sometimes. But however much I wish it were otherwise it's just too damned dangerous for me not to train him... or should I say "her?" Happosai smiled. _One thing's for sure, after this I'm taking a vacation. Maybe to __America__.__ This "sexual harassment" sounds interesting...__

"Can't you at least tell me how to change back to a guy without water?" Ranma knew it had to do with feminine and masculine ki now, but she wasn't sure, and she was still generating feminine ki, despite her attempts to stop it.

"Yes, I could..." Happosai turned toward Ranma and smiled evilly, "But I'm honor bound not to."

That was it. That was the last straw. Ranma was officially pissed. "Fine then! Be that way! I never wanted be your student to begin with!" Ranma huffed off to her clothes.

The small old man started walking into the kitchen again, ignoring Ranma.

"Just when he was makin' himself useful..." Ranma blurred into her Chinese outfit. "He had to start callin' me a girl and being his usual perverted self." She got back to the doorway and walked inside, storming through the dining area where Happosai now sat eating and to the foot of the stairs. "He shows me something really cool then doesn't tell me how to do it. The nerve of that... PERVERT!"

"Akane?" Happosai looked up, then he remembered. "Damn Ijuu," he mumbled and then went back to eating his cold breakfast.

Ranma reached the top of the steps. "What am I doing up here?" She looked around a bit then stomped her way back down the stairs grumbling "He thinks I'm a girl? Well I'll show him, with his stupid 'honor bound not to tell you anything important' crap." Ranma walked through the dining room again and into the kitchen, oblivious to Happosai and his glare. Ranma started the range and put the teakettle on with a slam. Ranma paused. There was something missing... "Water, it's always water..." she seethed as she took the teakettle off the range filled it unceremoniously with H2O and slammed it back on the range causing water to slosh out and extinguish the range flame. " 'Akane has more ki than you do' he says. 'Akane's more of a man than you are' he says. Well I'll show him. I'm better than that tomboy any day of the week! I'm a much better martial artist, I can cook, heck Akane can't even boil water!, and I don't lose my temper nearly as much! WHY THE HELL ISN'T THIS WATER HEATING UP!!?? Oh." You could say Ranma's subconscious was trying to tell her something. Not that she was in the mood to listen. She re-lit the range, causing a medium-sized explosion. Luckily this was not enough to cause any real damage (the stove was made in Nerima, with martial artists in mind), and after recovering from the shock, she carefully prepared the teakettle and range again and waited impatiently, grumbling about Happosai and feeling the kettle intermittently.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Meanwhile, Nabiki came down the stairs in her school uniform wondering what was going on. Happosai paused between bites and asked, "Nabiki, this food tastes a little different, is Kasumi feeling alright?"

"Actually she came in late last night and was really exhausted this morning, so Ranma made breakfast instead."

"Is it true? Ranma made this???"

"Yep, true as the gleam off your bald head." Nabiki said with a bemused smirk. She was still probing this weakness in Happosai from when he revealed it during the Dragon's whisker fiasco.

Happosai retaliated by spitting his breakfast all over Nabiki's uniform. "You mean I'm eating something that SHE made?"

"Don't you mean 'he?'" Nabiki asked idly as she picked the pieces of cold rice and fish off her dress with a look of mild annoyance.

"No I mean 'she' as in the red-headed whore who broke my legs." Happosai was not happy with Ranma and he had to vent some of his anger.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
Finally the water was hot enough. Ranma lifted it up and got ready to pour it on herself. "Now we'll see who's a girl..." with that, she emptied the contents on her head.

Ranma screamed. A few pieces of glassware cracked and shattered. It was an extremely pathetic "Help! I'm scared and I don't know what's going on!" kind of thing.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  
"What was that?" asked Nabiki to no one in particular. Her ears were ringing from the sound.

"I think Ranma just found out that water doesn't work anymore," Happosai replied smiling.

"Oh." Nabiki frowned. "When you told me to leave earlier... that was mind control wasn't it?"

Happosai nodded.

"Don't suppose you could teach me that, could you?"

"Yes, but I won't. You're scary enough as it is, my dear."

Akane ran down the stairs in her uniform. "Ranma where are you?! We're going to be late AGAIN! Hey did anyone hear that scream? It sounded like some girl was in trouble."

Ranma shuffled out of the kitchen, wet and confused. She wanted to go back to bed. She wanted to be alone. She wanted to be allowed not to think. She wanted to be still just for a moment so that she could make sense of the changing patterns around her.

"MOVE Ranma! What are you THINKING, that EVERYONE'S going to wait for you? Baka, if you're so tired you shouldn't have gotten up so early!" Ranma looked at Akane quizzically, the words not quite registering. "Come on, Ranma! School starts in TEN MINUTES!"

Oh yeah, the fifth circle of Hell. Ranma had forgotten...

~~~~~[END]~~~~~

  
End notes:

It gets weirder.

Thanks to John C Watson, Necrovore, and Thermopyle, who helped me out immensely during the revision process.

  
C+C welcome

  
  



	3. The Beast Within

****

Thyself Known

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Ch.3- The Beast Within

W. Brad Robinson

****

DISCLAIMER: I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to steal Rumiko Takahashi's characters! Honest! It just sorta…happened. I suspect demonic forces are at work...

****

Note: First off let me say that this will most likely be revised soon. I just wanted to get something out a soon as possible and so this hasn't been pre-read yet, so you're seeing this in it's raw and gory glory. Now then…

****

What Has Come Before- Ranma had a dream. Ranma's curse changed. Now he's female whenever he _feels_ female. Happosai can control minds and make ki apples. Oh and Ranma seems to have gone a _tiny_ bit insane. It's okay…no biggie.

~~~~~*~~~~~

__

"You can have my isolation, 

You can have the hate that it brings  
You can have my absence of faith, 

You can have my everything

Help me tear down my reason,

Help me its' your sex I can smell  
Help me you make me perfect,

Help me become somebody else"  
-Closer- Nine Inch Nails

~~~~~[START]~~~~~

Early morning found Shampoo furry, exhausted, and miserable. She had been splashed the night before while delivering ramen, and as it turns out, cats can't ride bicycles. A five-minute trip on a bike instantly turned into a twelve or thirteen hour trek through darkened streets and strange neighborhoods. That wasn't what made Shampoo miserable though.

Though she kept quiet about it, the truth was that Shampoo hated her curse more than any other Jusenkyo victim. She hated it because it was a reminder of how stupid she had been, of her failure to secure Ranma to herself, and of her sheer ineptness. As an Amazon she hated ineptness…But all this was secondary, merely the insult added to a much more massive injury.

The real reason she hated her curse, the one she would only reveal to someone if she were extremely drunk and held at gunpoint…was what it did to her once a month. 

It was a simple fact that was nonetheless easy to overlook. When Shampoo turned into a cat she WAS a cat physically. She retained her intelligence but her hormones…they were quite different. 

Cats approach relationships a little bit differently from most humans. A cat does not, for instance, get to know another cat over a can of fish, then escort the other cat back to its home whereupon the decision to make love is made based on mutual agreement and after consideration is made of all the consequences. No, the feline concept of foreplay runs something like this: a female cat begins to menstruate. She unconsciously gives off a pungent odor that makes all male cats into sex craved lunatics. She also is driven to become a sex craved lunatic herself by the hormones raging through her bloodstream. A male cat approaches from behind whereupon the female can either act on what little self control they have and attack, or can adopt "The Position". Adopting "The Position" consists of lying on the stomach and raising the hindquarters with the back legs. This facilitates mating. 

Shampoo REALLY hated her curse.

It was that time of the month for Shampoo, and though she pleaded with the old ghoul to let her stay at the Café…it was to no avail. Almost immediately after she was splashed, they started to come. The first one was the worst…It was a striped gray with a chunk taken out of his left ear. Very handsome by cat standards. Instantly she felt almost uncontrollable animal urges. Shampoo had to struggle to turn her feelings of animal lust into fury and lash out against the male before it was too late. Even then, he was battle-worn and persistent. It took a good five minutes to wound him enough so he would relent. Amazon techniques didn't translate well to her cat form, but they kept her from a fate worse than death. 

Shampoo shuddered off the thought as she came to the back door of the Nekohanten. Even now she felt her body calling out to be taken… and Shampoo had no doubts as to her current sexual preference.

Shampoo padded through the pet door and went to the small furo in the back room. She jumped in, battling against the instinctual revulsion she felt about water in general and she became human once again. She felt the insane sexual hunger slip away in the heat. She relaxed, letting the water soothe her nerves.

Shampoo remembered a time when she was younger that she was worried she might not be attracted to men. It was only the fact that she wasn't attracted to women either that kept her from experimenting. If she used her imagination she could find some of the men attractive after awhile, but by then she had made her decision, she would only marry the one who would defeat her. 

Now she knew with out a doubt what her preference was. It was her horrible secret… something she would rather die than reveal… 

She was attracted to cats.

Male ones. 

Preferably all black with ears slightly damaged but not to the point of being grotesque… Shampoo shook her head free of the image. At first it was just a dream that she had when she slept as a cat, but recently she'd been having it as a human too…

Having lived with the curse for a year now, Shampoo had come up with some rather desperate possible solutions to her problem. One idea she had…often…was that maybe if she just let herself be taken, she'd get over it and feel better. But that was WAY too dangerous. Shampoo recalled the text in Amazon Guide to Jusenkyo … "If a Jusenkyo victim is impregnated," the book said "then she will remain in form she was impregnated in for the rest of her life." If she ever succumbed to her urges…her humanity could be lost forever. If, on the other hand, she were to get pregnant in her human form…she'd be cured. 

This was the true reason why the society that lived so close to Jusenkyo was matriarchal. Women had a not so easy cure to the curses. Men didn't. In a region with no running water, this placed women somewhat ahead of men in dominance. They didn't even need to carry the baby to term. Many of those women who were cursed simply got themselves pregnant and aborted right away using homemade herbal concoctions. There were those that disapproved of these actions, and from time to time, depending on who was on the council, they were sufficient grounds for banishment, but far more got away with it than suffered any consequences.

Unfortunately, there were several reasons why this desperate ploy would not work. First of all, if she got pregnant by anyone other than Ranma she'd never be able to return home. With Cologne watching her, there was no way that she could go against this. Second, the only man Shampoo was in any way attracted to was Ranma. No one else caught her eye at all, and whenever she tried thinking of being…intimate with Mousse, she became ill. He was her friend and though he was a little dense Shampoo didn't mind him really, she just couldn't stand the thought of being married to him. 

If it was going to be anybody it had to be Ranma. Honored Mummy on Stick was SUPPOSED to be helping her get him, but ever since she used the cat's tongue on Ranma, Shampoo started to suspect what the old crone really wanted was for Ranma to join the amazons as a woman. Every time Shampoo thought of it the more sense it made. As a man, Ranma would be stifled. His skills, due to his backward culture, were more womanly than most would tolerate from a man. All he would be good for was genes, and while good genes are helpful in improving a bloodline, they do not ensure talent. On the other hand, if Ranma willingly joined the Amazons as a woman, then they'd have full access to his skills AND have the loyalty of his children as well. Not to mention that Akane, Ukyo, and even Kodachi would make formidable Amazons in their own right and if Ranma joined the Joketsuzoku then they might choose to follow. 

Shampoo initially thought the idea wouldn't work. Despite being very womanly in skill and temperament (something Shampoo didn't mind at all, she liked a boy with spunk) Ranma was quite adamant about being a man. But when Grandmother used the Cat's Tongue and Ranma started working at the café… There were times when Shampoo couldn't imagine Ranma being a boy. It made Shampoo extremely scared. 

She started glomping him even when he was a girl in the hope that somehow she could keep him from becoming a girl mentally Perhaps the idea was silly, but it was the only thing she could think of, and besides, she enjoyed it too much to stop. Yes, even if Ranma became a girl permanently, she'd still go after her. Lesbianism was hundreds of times better than … The Position. She shuddered again. 

She hoped it didn't come to that though. Because then she'd have to lose her virginity to…someone she did not love. And it would probably be Mousse. Shampoo felt ill again.

She got out of the furo, dried off and dressed. She had to hurry or she might miss Ranma. Shampoo realized she was acting like a weak little lovesick boy, heck, her methods weren't all that different from Mousse's, but she didn't care. She loved Ranma. He was the only thing that brought her out of her funk. He was the only thing she had outside her work and her training. He was the only thing that made her feel alive. 

She ran outside dodging Grandmother and Mousse. She had to see him to today. She had to.

He was the only thing that made her feel human.

~~~~~*~~~~~

Ranma Saotome was running on the top of the fence. She was also trying to change sexes with her mind. It wasn't working. Taking a break she took in her present situation. She was running because she was following Akane. She was following Akane because she wanted to know why she was so upset. She couldn't know why Akane was upset because Akane wasn't talking. Well, running on the fence wasn't solving anything. Ranma jumped down from the fence to intercept Akane. 

"Oi! What's wrong with you today Akumph!" 

Akane shoved past Ranma by gently slamming Ranma in the cheek with her fist and ran onwards. 

Ranma caught up with her and ran along side of her. "C'mon Akane! You're more upset than usual and that's sayin' somethin'!" 

"…" Akane answered. She kept running as if Ranma wasn't there.

Ranma didn't like this. Akane had insulted her a lot this morning and while it hurt, she was sure it was just Akane overreacting again. But what would make her so angry? Or…did she actually believe what she said? Ranma was worried. "Akane-chan? You know you can talk to me about anything and I won't think ill of you."

Akane stopped suddenly. "How dare you…" she spoke quietly, making her rage seem even more pronounced, "impersonate my _sister_!"

That was a strange accusation even from Akane…Ranma tried to clear her head, she needed information… "What on _earth _are you talking about?" 

"Stop it, Ranma! It's not funny and I don't want to talk to you!"

"What's not funny?" Ranma asked confused.

"You were making fun of Kasumi and Nabiki you jerk!"

"No I wasn't…Why don't you tell me what's wrong, sugar." 

"Arrgh! Now you're acting like Ukyo! If you want me to talk stop joking around!" Akane's hands were tight fists at her sides.

"I'm not joking Akane! Honestly! The way you're talking you'd think *_I*_ were the one who's acting strange!" Ranma and Akane now looked like bookends of mindless indignation.

Red fire whipped about Akane as her aura's intensity reached the visual spectrum. "That's it. I don't have to take this. I'm NOT YOUR FIANCEE ANYMORE!" Akane summoned her mallet she swung with all her might…and missed.

Ranma dodged it, holding her fists under her chin cutely while her face held a worried expression. "Please stop it Akane! You're scaring me! You know I hate violence!"

Akane's mallet winked out of existence. "HA! I KNEW it! You were acting back then! You were just trying to get to me! You little SNEAK! And you slept in my ROOM!"

"Oh dear! I've been out for a while haven't I? I have all these new memories…Mother! She doesn't realize…Oh what will I do! I might have to leave my family…Maybe your Father could adopt me, Akane. Then we could be sisters!" Akane walked off. "Don't be angry Akane! I'm me again! If you want I'll leave it's just…You and your family have been so kind to me. I feel like I belong somewhere now."

Ranma's last words must have struck a chord with Akane. She stopped for a moment and then walked away more slowly. "You aren't fooling me again, Ranma."

"Akane, please don't be mad. I know you'd prefer it if I was a man, but it just can't be. I'm a woman. I can't change who I am anymore than you can."

"Don't make me laugh, Ranma. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of changing who you are." Akane said bitterly. "You can just stay a girl for all I care!" Akane started running again. 

It was at that moment that Shampoo found Ranma standing with her fingers at her lips, like a worried little boy… 

It's a little difficult to judge what is considered girl-like or boy-like to an amazon. Fighting people is a perfectly normal thing for a girl to do for instance, while boys are expected to stay inside and play with dolls. There are some things however, which transcend culture. One of these is the subtle difference in the way men and women carry themselves. Perhaps it has to do with the distant patriarchal origins of the Amazons, or maybe Shampoo had spent too much time in Japan, or perhaps there really is something instinctual that affects the culture norms of men and women, but somehow Shampoo felt a jangling femaleness in the traditionally (for her anyway) boyish action.

This would not do.

Shampoo prepared her glomp, visualizing her trajectory and making allowances for the diminished mass of Ranma's cursed form. "Wo de airen!" She cried as she launched from the ground. As she reached the height of her jump she saw something astonishing happen. Ranma changed from girl to boy in front of her eyes…without water. Excited, Shampoo hugged Ranma even tighter than usual "Airen find cure! You give to Shampoo yes?"

Immediately, Shampoo realized something was wrong. She couldn't put her finger on it…but it had something to do with Ranma purring…

Slowly, timidly Shampoo released Ranma. No longer supported by her, he landed on all fours on the concrete. A hungry look was in his eyes. Shampoo drew back frightened. She knew that look…she'd seen it so often that very night. An irrational fear filled her… a fear that gradually became something else. Without quite knowing how it happened, Shampoo dimly realized that her head was a little lower than Ranma's… she was adopting The Position. Ranma slunk behind her. 

This was what she wanted right? This was Ranma… This was her Airen right? NO! Shampoo shouted back at herself NO this is NOT Ranma. This is just another CAT. I am NOT a cat. But Ranma was really human right? It was okay then wasn't it? NO! I am an AMAZON and there is no way I will let anyone, man or beast, treat me different! She turned around and slashed at Ranma, claws ripping through his shoulder…Claws?

"Reeeoooooow!" Ranma screamed and jumped back. Then, he crawled a little closer. "Mrowr?" He asked.

Get away! She wanted to say. Instead she said "Ftttt!" It sounded shockingly inhuman. 

"Ryaow." Ranma commented and slunk away toward the human…Akane.

When it was obvious Ranma wasn't going to try anything, Shampoo sat back on her haunches and started to clean herself. Suddenly, she realized what she was doing. She stopped with some difficulty. She was human. She was not a cat. All she had to do was get up…If she could just remember how. She looked around…She had to get away from where there were humans…people. She had snap out of this. She loped away from Ranma and the human and toward a grassy area by a bridge. Tired from her recent exertion and from the long night previous…she fell asleep in a sunny section of grass.

~~~~~*~~~~~

The sequence of events from Shampoo's "Wo de Airen" onward was a car crash that Akane could not keep from watching. Suddenly, it all fell into place. Why Shampoo glomped Ranma all the time, why Ranma acted the way he did, the whole reversal jewel business. Akane's jaw went slack when she saw Shampoo's ki claws tear into Ranma's shoulder. Ranma really WAS a pervert…

Ranma fought the urge to pee along the wall. He knew that his human didn't like that and that the strange removable fur he had made marking territory a fruitless and uncomfortable task. It also prevented him from mating with the female cat human. She was in heat, he could tell. And she was attracted to him. Not only that, she was the same species both mind and body. She would have to be won though. It wouldn't be easy. Ranma's keen eyes darted to Akane. Easier than attempting to mate with his current girl human though. It was obvious she felt no attraction to him even when he wasn't a cat. Some rival must have stolen her affections. If Ranma could've marked his territory properly it would not have happened. "Mrowr." Ranma said disconsolately. He checked his shoulder…just a scratch, only about five centimeters deep. It should heal within a few days. 

He ambled slowly toward the girl human. If Ranma had proper ears he would have flattened them. If he had a tail he would have waved it. He wanted his human to know how displeased he was with her. She had not given a decent petting since she lost her food preparing challenge. Ranma, being a cat, wasn't sure about the particulars of the challenge but he knew enough about challenges in general to know that Akane didn't know when to pick her fights. Ranma yawned and stretched his front paws/hands out lowering his upper back and raising his hindquarters. He brought his claws out causing massive gouges to appear in the pavement. My girl human would never make it as a cat, Ranma mused, She'd probably get killed after trying to chase a car, thinking she was a dog. 

Ranma decided to risk approaching the human. "Meow?" He asked.

"Honestly, you're not going to try to fool me now are you? To think all this time I actually thought you were a cat when you were like this! Now I know its just one of your sick fantasies. Well, I refuse to be a part of it! I'm not into S and M, and I'm certainly not into bestiality."

"Meow?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"Okay maybe I'm into S and M a LITTLE…" Akane conceded. Then she shook her head angrily. "What am I telling YOU for! You… you… you BOY!" Akane's hammer winked back into existence and she prepared for an underhanded strike. 

Ranma scurried off. His shoulder was starting to irritate him and he didn't feel like playing with his human right now. He had to find the healer human. He stopped on a street corner and sat on his haunches. There was another reason why he had to find the healer human…what was it? Ranma started to clean himself as he considered the matter. 

Then suddenly his hand became a fist and hit his open palm. "That's right! I've gotta ask'm for a note ta get outta class!" Ranma looked around. He was sitting on a street corner in the middle of Nerima. Some people were looking at him oddly. Ranma slowly stood up. He winced. His shoulder hurt. Bad. "Arrgh! How'd this happen?" The answer came to him in a flash of images… "Shampoo?" And then a fresh onslaught of blocked memories hit him. He remembered all the times when he was a cat. When he had first attacked Pops, when he had 'kissed' Akane (He realized now that his cat side was making a desperate attempt to "mate" with her) Every embarrassing moment came back and wouldn't go away. 

It was weird. When he was a cat…everything he did made sense, even more than it did when he was human. And yet he was doing the silliest things…like licking himself at a public street corner. Then he remembered about being a girl. Saying he was a woman, quitting the Art…picking out bras (Ranma shuddered at this.) Again everything seemed so clear…he knew exactly what he wanted then. Not like normal. Not like now. 

He looked at the cars stopping and going. Some of them turned right, some left, some kept going straight… Things weren't so cut and dry for Ranma. He had all these choices, all these things he could be, but how could he choose just one? In a way he was freer than anyone…but…he felt so _trapped._

He could feel them now…the cat and the girl…lurking within him… waiting for him to relinquish control. Where had they come from? How did they get there? Who were they? "Who am I?" Ranma asked himself. It was the question Happosai had asked him five lifetimes and half an hour ago. Only now he wasn't so sure of the answer…

~~~~~*~~~~~

Tofu woke up in his bedroom above the clinic. His head was still pounding out the bass line of the nightclub he and Kasumi went to that night. It was something neither of them had ever done and if the hangover he was experiencing had anything to say about it, they wouldn't be doing it again anytime soon. 

Unless of course she wanted to.

Tofu shoveled himself out of bed, smeared on his clothes from last night and staggered downstairs.

Kasumi. Kasumi! KASUMI! GODS! What a woman! How did he ever find her without scouring the heavens and looking in every cloud for an angel? She made him so happy. She was it. She was the one. Only this damn obligation of hers to her family… but even that made her more appealing. He couldn't help himself when he was near her. The merest mention of her sent trills of insane pleasure down his body. He wanted to hold her, to caress her, to kiss her, to tell her how he felt…only he couldn't because she asked him, BEGGED him, to wait until after her family got over her mother's death. He would sooner refuse a heavenly decree than the gentlest of suggestions from Kasumi. Oh but it was so HARD, and finally, FINALLY! His waiting was over. Now he could woo her, and pamper her, and treat her like the princess she deserved to be. 

He shoved his hand in his pocket and looked at the photo sticker they had made of themselves. She was so beautiful…

He wanted to marry her right away, but she said last night that she wanted to wait, and Tofu wasn't about to push it. In his dream just now…she said the same thing. But the Kasumi in his dream was just a face to say the words that he needed to hear. She was no more the real Kasumi than Betty the skeleton, even if she seemed so incredibly like the original. Ranma was going through the Ijuu. He was going to need Tofu's help today. 

But why did it have to be TODAY? 

Tofu felt an urgent need to drink a few swimming pools full of water. Tofu put the sticker back in his pocket and shuffled to the sink in his slippers. He downed a few glasses off the tap, foreign microbes and added chemicals be damned, and splashed himself in the face with another glass. This made him think of Ranma.

It was because of Ranma that his wait was over. Ranma just made everyone forget their troubles and concentrate on other things, namely him. At least once a week there'd be another fiancé's crazy plan or another eccentric foreign dignitary with a predilection toward kidnapping and kitchen utensils. And if it weren't for him, Nodoka would not have stayed for any length of time. Tofu was thinking of leaving, his inability to control himself around Kasumi was becoming dangerous, but when Nodoka showed up…Kasumi came by a lot more and gradually, Tofu got to the point where he was no longer a threat to his patients. Tofu owed Ranma a lot, even if Ranma wasn't aware of it. And the poor boy/girl was about to go through something that would shake him to his very roots…If it didn't break him. 

Tofu rubbed his eyes and put his glasses on. He had to get started soon. Feeling marginally better with only an upset stomach and a cerebral elephant parade he went to his library and pulled out three well-weathered volumes. He opened the first: _Selected Works of Franz Kafka_ and turned to the page in Metamorphosis where the main character's family first sees the cockroach he has become. There he found a jagged, thin sliver of metal about the size of a normal bookmarker. He placed this, with care, on the table by the books. Then he opened the second: _Ovid's Metamorphosis_. At the page with the passage describing how Tiresias is transformed into a woman when he disturbs two mating snakes there was another sliver of metal, this one smooth and wavy. After placing this next to the first he opened _Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland_. This final sliver had both a wavy and a jagged edge. It was found at a page near the beginning, where Alice hears the Caterpillar's question: "Who are you?" 

Tofu placed the last sliver in between the other two. It was the last piece to a simple puzzle. The other two slivers fit the sides of the third perfectly and when the puzzle was complete there was a yellow glow and the seams disappeared. The three slivers had combined into a single metal sheet. The metal was black with a blue iridescence and made the eyes search for mysteries and secrets within its surface. Tofu knew its secrets, and how to unlock them. 

Placing his right hand on the cool, smooth, metal sheet, he cleared his throat and said the Code: "Only one power…In all of the universe…That of thyself known." 

Glowing a dark blue, the sheet rose, expanded, and thickened until it was the size of a large cigar box. Aside from its eldritch nature and the vast importance of what it held, that's essentially what it was. 

Inside was one of the most powerful artifacts ever constructed. It granted control over the powers of transmogrification and telepathy, but only if its user knew exactly who they were. Only those who had started the Ijuu could use it and for these people it served another purpose…

It kept them from killing themselves. 

Tofu moved to open the lid but then decided against it. There was no telling what form the artifact would take. It was something different each time it was called, and if it were fragile…and Kasumi happened to show up at the wrong moment…Tofu didn't want to risk destroying the thing that might very well save Ranma's life. Instead, he set about making a cure for his hangover.

After fifteen minutes or so of preparation, Tofu was just about to enjoy his first sip of hangover cure tea when someone at the door knocked rather loudly. Wincing at the pain this caused him, Tofu sipped at his tea. The door was knocked again, louder this time. Tofu took several long, quick gulps. He had put up a sign last night saying that the clinic would be closed today and not to knock on the door. Couldn't people read?…

~~~~~*~~~~~

Ranma read the sign again: [Tofu clinic…scribble… for today. Please…scribble scribble … knock] He scratched his head, and then knocked again a few times. Starting to get bored he decided on a shave and a haircut pattern for variation. After trying that out he decided to do the same thing only slower so he would get the point across. Just when he was about to reach the 'haircut' bit again Tofu opened the door. Ranma stared. Tofu's hair was in disarray, his face unshaven and if he went to the airport with the bags he had under his eyes he'd probably have to have them checked…

"Jeez, doc, ya look like hell!"

Tofu leaned in the doorway took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Thanks, Ranma. I was going to go for the Purgatory look, but then I thought," He put his glasses back on, "why not go all out?" Then he saw the four parallel, jagged tears in Ranma's shoulder. Blood was seeping out of the wounds. Ranma must have unconsciously slowed the bleeding with his ki, but the wound would still need to be treated right away to guard against infection. "You don't look so good yourself," Tofu said with a smile as he motioned Ranma in. "What was it, a cat fight?"

"Um yeah…actually." Ranma walked inside, shucking his shoes off.

Tofu raised an eyebrow as he shut the door and followed Ranma. "You were fighting a cat?"

Ranma turned at the entrance to Tofu's office. "Yeah…uh…no…well sorta" He sat down on an examination chair. "It was Shampoo."

"Hmm?" Tofu looked closer at the claw mark. It started about ten centimeters down the back of Ranma's left shoulder and ended about three centimeters down in the front. Ranma's red shirt still blocked the view too much to tell how much damage there was. "You mind if I tear this?"

"Huh? Oh sure go ahead. S'already ruined anyway."

Nodding Tofu tore the shirt from Ranma's arm.

"OW! The shirt! Not my skin!"

"Sorry, some of the blood must have dried." It had to be done sometime and Tofu was first and foremost a chiropractor, so he was used to doing painful procedures quickly and when a patient didn't expect it. He tore off the shirt and through the garment in the receptacle marked 'BIOHAZARD.' Tofu found this oddly humorous, but Ranma didn't share his feelings so he set about checking his wound. What Tofu saw confirmed his suspicions and what Ranma said about it being a cat fight. The claw mark definitely started at the back and moved UP which would have been impossible if Ranma had been standing upright. "You were in nekoken mode when this happened?"

"Yeah…so was Shampoo."

"Shampoo knows the nekoken?"

"I dunno doc, she just sorta started actin' like a cat when I did, but whatever it was it was a lot like the nekoken."

"You remember this?"

"Yeah. I remember all of it…only it's like a dream or somethin'. Wait a minute…cats. CATS! I can actually say it! They don't scare me no more!"

"That's rather odd, why do you think that is?"

"Feh, prolly 'cause I know I can kick all their asses!" Ranma frowned. There was a pause before Ranma continued. "A lot of strange stuff's been happenin' all day, doc. Stranger than usual ya know? And that's sayin' somethin'."

"Hmm…" Tofu got a small basin from a cabinet under the sink and started to fill it with warm water, then he thought he might as well make sure that it was Ranma who was going through the Ijuu and not some other conflicted martial artist. His dreams were rarely wrong, but he did drink more than usual last night. He turned the hot water off and filled the rest of the basin with cold. "Why weren't you with Akane?" Tofu asked conversationally…

Ranma's mood darkened immediately. "I…she…I was a cat…she threatened me…I ran away." Akane wasn't attracted to him. That's what he saw when he was a cat. At one time…maybe, but now… nothing. Ranma drew in a ragged breath. And if she wasn't attracted to him, she sure as hell didn't love him. And it was at that moment that Ranma realized that he, in fact, loved her. Ranma felt a lump grow in his throat and her eyes started to mist over…

Tofu poured the water out of the basin. He refilled it with warm water. He no longer needed any proof. Ranma had just changed from a boy to a girl without any water. He was worried though. Ranma shouldn't be so unstable yet. Then again, Ranma was an exception to every rule about medicine Tofu could think of, why should it be any different with the Ijuu? He dipped a sponge in the basin and started to wash the blood off Ranma's back. Here was another example of how Ranma broke the rules. This wound would have a normal man dead within a few hours of blood loss. At the very least a wound this severe would normally need a great deal of stitches. But for Ranma, this was nothing serious, and to give him stitches would actually impede his healing, aggravating the wound every time he changed forms. Tofu was getting increasingly worried, though about Ranma's crying. She, as it was difficult to think of Ranma as a he at the moment, was doing an awful lot of it…

"Ranma…do you want to talk about it?"

Through her tears Ranma felt the warm sponge on her back, soothing and stinging. Overall it felt pretty good. She wished this were something she could count on. That there was someone like Tofu who would be there for her and offer support and… 

"T-Tofu?"

"Yes?" 

"Did you know that Akane…had a crush on you?"

"What!" Tofu almost knocked the basin to the floor. He was almost ten years older than Akane! He knew her when she was in kindergarten! Then again Kasumi was only older by three years. Even if she was extremely…mature for her age. For some reason he always saw Kasumi as being as old, if not older, than he was. She carried about her a mystery that smacked of years of experience. It was one of the reasons he was crazy about her. But Akane…she was just a little kid…who got assaulted by boys who wanted to date her…and wound up in his office, where he would treat her wounds. "Gods!" Tofu exclaimed

His father warned him about it. "Ono, my boy," he would say, "be careful when you treat girls, a doctor's office can be a aphrodisiac for them if their day hasn't been that good. If you're ever in doubt, get a female nurse or doctor to treat them." But Tofu had thought his father was just being sexist and just dismissed it. He hadn't even considered it when he was treating Akane. Now some of her strange behavior right before Ranma came made more sense. 

"I didn't realize…" Tofu said. Suddenly he had an odd thought. Ranma was currently female. Check. She was having a bad day. Check. He was treating her. Check. She was acting strange. Check check CHECK! And why would she bring up Akane's crush? Tofu put the basin away and nervously got the bandages for Ranma's shoulder. The Ijuu was truly a scary scary thing.

"You know…she was growing her hair out long for you." 

"I…didn't know, no." Tofu started to wrap a long cloth bandage around Ranma's shoulder, trying very hard not to make any contact with her skin. Tofu wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to treat girls again after this. 

"Well when it got cut, she could've let it grow back right? But she didn't."

Tofu wrapped the bandaged a couple more times. "I don't understand." 

"I think she didn't grow it out again because I said it was cute."

"Huh?" Tofu had somehow forgotten that the conversation was about Ranma and not necessarily about Akane's crush on Tofu. "Oh! Well then…excuse me for asking, Ranma, but why are you crying?"

"It's… been gettin' longer recently."

"Oh." Tofu finished wrapping the bandage when all that Ranma had said sunk in. "Oh GODS! I'm so sorry Ranma!" Tofu realized why Ranma was crying. Even he had seen signs that Akane wasn't acting the same toward Ranma. He tried to imagine how he'd feel if Kasumi…but thankfully he couldn't imagine that and he hoped he'd never need to experience it. But though he felt for Ranma, he didn't have any words of solace to give or any way of making the situation better…except perhaps by offering a distraction…

"Ranma…I have something for you. It might take your mind off things for a bit."

"Um…okay." 

Ranma tried not to think of Tofu naked. Thinking of Akane certainly didn't help. And any mental assertions that she was mentally a man fell on mentally deaf mental ears. The only thing that seemed to make things a little better was thinking of Kasumi and that she DESERVED Tofu. 

Ranma tried not to think of Kasumi and Tofu naked…

"It's just in the other room," Tofu said as he stood up from behind Ranma and walked toward the door. "I'll be right back." Tofu noticed Ranma's bare female chest. "I'll get a shirt for you too while I'm at it." He mumbled and left…

Ranma looked at what remained of her shirt beside her… She wondered if she should take her pants off. DAMMIT! What's wrong with me? I love Akane!…But she doesn't love me. And Tofu's a GUY! Ranma felt a wave of iciness course through her. so?… I'm a MAN!… again- so? …But that's WRONG!… who says? my father? my mother? akane? why should i listen to them? why should i listen to anybody? what does it matter if i'm a girl or a guy?… maybe i could seduce tofu… then i could kill akane and blackmail him into helping me hide the evidence… then i could kill him… then i won't have to worry about my heart being broken. "No," Ranma said out loud quietly. "Because then I wouldn't have one." Ranma felt the terrible emptiness she felt this morning… only worse. It was getting worse…But… she had stopped crying. 

Very well then…who needs a heart anyway? 

~~~~~*~~~~~

Tofu came back with a shirt and the multidimensional cigar box. The air around the door to the room was cold. He got the distinct feeling that something was wrong. He called out "Ranma? Are you okay in there?"

"Sure, babe, why don't you come inside so you can see the view?" 

Yes something was definitely wrong. He probably shouldn't go in the room. It was probably extremely dangerous. Tofu might even die. Yes, it would probably be best if he just left for awhile…Tofu sighed. He went into the room.

"Like what you see?" Ranma gestured to her completely naked body. "I might as well tell you that I find you attractive, since there's no point in my raising a fuss about being a man. How could I be a man? The only woman I ever loved hates me. "

Tofu was a doctor. The naked body didn't normally phase him, unless he thought of someone whose name begins with 'Ka.' Tofu looked straight into Ranma's eyes. "Ranma, listen to yourself. This is not you."

"Oh? Who is it then? No my dear Tofu you're wrong. It IS me. It's ALWAYS been me. But my honor, my petty need for human contact has kept me in check. Well fuck that. Who will give me what I need? Pop? Don't be ridiculous. Mom? She'd rather kill me. Akane? She just wants me dead. You? You love Kasumi, and that takes care of her too. Nabiki sees me as a piece of ass, Shampoo, Kodachi, and Ukyo all want me as some trophy they can fuck when they get bored. Tell me, Tofu, what reason do I have not to kill every last one of you?"

This WAS bad. Tofu murmured something under his breath: "At my darkest hour, I shall become a pillar of light. I shall see the path before me and go forth. I shall ward evil away with the power of my determination, and use the light of my soul to find the truth." It was the Litany Against Desperation…one of twelve different litanies he learned as member of the Flock.

"Yes lets look at the truth shall we. Cold, hard, facts." The room became even colder. Painfully cold. "For some reason the soul of ice has become more than just a metaphor. I wonder how cold I can make it…"

"St-st-stop this Ranma!" Tofu shivered. He inhaled more of the frigid air and forced himself to say something, anything to get Ranma to stop. "You are being more positively STUPID now than you have ever been! I DO love you! You're like a little brother, heck maybe someday you'll BE my brother…or sister… it doesn't matter. If it wasn't for you I could have never have been able to stay with Kasumi. She loves you too I know it! Your father is misdirected, but if he didn't care about you why would he bother with you at all? And your mother doesn't know you're her son! She might yet welcome you! I can't speak for your fiancées but I'm sure they aren't as bad as you make them out to be. If you want love Ranma look around! Don't close your eyes because of one instance of unrequited affection!" The room warmed considerably in the silence that followed.

Finally Ranma spoke, "You do raise one or two good points. I'll think about it. Are you going to give me the shirt or shall we continue as we are?"

Tofu stopped opening and closing his mouth and tossed the shirt to Ranma who promptly pulled it over her head. It was a black T-shirt that Tofu usually wore under his gi when the weather got colder. "How long have you been having these…mood swings, Ranma?"

"Mood swings? Tofu, I think you and I both know this is more than just a mood swing." 

Tofu nodded dumbly. He should have been more prepared for this…but it was all so shocking. If it weren't for the different timbre to the voice and the fact that he could see Ranma right in front of him, Tofu would have sworn that Nabiki had just said that. 

"What was that you were saying earlier? It sounded like an incantation or a ritual…Do you belong to some secret society or something?"

Yep, nail on the head. Tofu grimaced. Ranma was always observant, Akane told him once how Ranma had known he was a martial artist. There had been other times when his true intelligence peeped through. Coming up with the last move of the Hiryuu Shoten Ha on his own for instance. But Tofu was never there when it happened, and he could never be sure whether it was some chance inspiration. Now there wasn't any doubt, no one could so successfully be Nabiki, unless they were at least as intelligent as Nabiki. But the question was...how much could he tell Ranma without endangering her progress through the Ijuu? 

"Yes, Ranma, I do belong to a 'secret society.' I hope you don't mind if I don't say more, as I prefer it stay secret for now. You're right. They aren't mood swings. They're more like personality swings. What you are going through…its sort of like multiple personality disorder, only it's more than just psychological, and the personalities you exhibit are just amplifications of aspects of your own personality."

Like one picture fading into another Ranma went from acting like Nabiki to acting like…someone else. "Interesting. Akane was telling me that I was acting like her sisters and Ukyo earlier I didn't notice, but she did get pretty angry." 

Tofu couldn't place this new personality. It was cold and logical, even more so than Nabiki, and there was an undercurrent of bitterness. "Yes that's probably because those are the people you are around the most. You see this normally too. If you hang around a group of people long enough, you tend to pick up some of their body movements, their quirks, their speech patterns what have you. Often in dreams, the people we know become metaphors for the feelings we associate with them."

"Dreams. This started with a dream I think."

"It usually does. What you are going through is a test, Ranma, among other things. The test concerns not only you, but all of the aspects of you. It is extremely dangerous. It can ruin your life, turn you into a shell of a person, or worse, it can drive you to acts you would normally die to prevent."

"I suppose that would explain why I have been obsessing about killing Akane from time to time."

Tofu suddenly felt like he had bitten off WAY more than he could chew. Ranma was obsessing on KILLING Akane? But this was Ranma! Ranma would never… Right. Ijuu. Maybe there was some other explanation though. Tofu took a wild shot in the dark. "Ranma? What do you think of when you think of Akane?"

"I'm not sure, anger perhaps."

Tofu relaxed a little. "I think that is what you really want to kill. Anger. Not just Akane's but your own. Akane is a metaphor of sorts, of anger."

"Hmm… maybe…but if that's it…then I don't think it's anger."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't just want to kill Akane, I want to annihilate her, disintegrate her, I want her inhumed and blown to the four winds. No, now that I think about it…she doesn't mean anger to me. That's looking at the surface. If she is a metaphor for anything…it's love."

Tofu didn't know what to say. This was so unlike Ranma…so unlike anyone he had met. His mentor had said that talking to some one first entering the Ijuu was like talking to a brick wall. This was like talking to an avalanche! Tofu did nothing but stare when Ranma started to get extremely red in the face… 

Ranma was extremely embarrassed. How could she behave so rudely? And she exposed herself to Tofu! How could she do such a thing? She put on the boy's underwear and pants hurriedly. She really hated having to wear such things but they were all she had, and besides she might turn into a boy again at any moment…

"I'm so sorry Tofu-sensei! I've been through so much today…I would never hurt Akane! She's my best friend! I don't know what made me say such horrid things."

"Are you Ranko now?" Tofu asked, trying to make some sense out of things.

Ranma stiffened, "Please don't call me that, Tofu-sensei. I positively hate that name! I can't be anything more than a niece to my mother because of it. Ranma's a nice name for a girl too, just call me that okay?"

"Okay. Ranma, do you remember why you came here?"

"Yes, I do. It's all so scary! All these other personalities in control! I'm glad you didn't see what happened this morning! Poor Grandfather Happosai almost died! I wish they'd all just go away. The bad ones anyway. I guess I don't mind acting like Ucchan or Kasumi-oneechan every now and then… I just want a pass so I don't have to go to school. I couldn't stand it if I hurt someone else."

School…after the surreality of what had just happened it was difficult to imagine such a banal concept. "I'll…write you a pass, don't worry…Ranma, you said you wouldn't mind acting like Kasumi or Ukyo… aren't there some other personalities you don't mind?" 

"Well, I guess I do kind of like acting like Nabiki, though she's kind of sneaky. But I don't like the others. Even Akane…she's my best friend, but I don't want to act like her." 

"What about Ranma…I mean your main personality?"

"I'm sorry, Tofu-sensei, I don't understand. I'm Ranma. I'm the main personality!"

"What?"

"You'll have to forgive me, I keep forgetting that everyone thinks I'm a boy. That Ranma isn't the real me. That's not even a personality like the others. That Ranma is just me, only more confused and turned around. That Ranma is just the chains that I had to put on to survive with Mr. Octopus Face, excuse me" Ranma giggled, "my father."

"But, weren't you born a boy?"

"I suppose…I really don't have any memories before 'Pus-face took me on that awful training trip. You know my life, Tofu-sensei, anything is possible. Even if I was born a boy, that hardly matters. I'm a woman now. When Akane knocked me into the pond it all became clear to me. Everything fell into place. I woke up from that terrible nightmare and I felt free for the first time in all my life. Then when she knocked me back it clouded over again." Ranma's expression darkened a little, "Akane's my best friend, but she can be… irritating at times."

Ranma was giving a disturbingly convincing argument. "I don't mean to pressure you, Ranma, but this is all coming out of left field for me here. Just a little while ago you said you loved Akane, and now you're saying she's your best friend. Now I know that you weren't talking about friendly, platonic love before…"

"Tofu-sensei…I'd really rather not talk about that…"

"I'm sorry but it's kind of important."

"Can't it wait? I'm really not in the mood to discuss it right now…"

"I just want to know…"

"Look, back off okay? If I'm a girl and I love another girl whadya think that makes me?"

Ranma was back. Or was SHE gone again?…

"Are you a girl, Ranma?"

"Hell no!…DAMMIT! This is freakin' me out! " Ranma was so sure, a moment ago that she was girl. Now everything was muddy again. Was she a girl? Ranma wasn't even sure if she was born male or not anymore. No, even if she was born a girl she was still a man now. Ranma equals man. End of story... 

Tofu's headache never had completely gone away, and now it was returning with a vengeance. Tofu used his right thumb and middle finger to rub his temples. "To tell you the truth, Ranma, it's freaking me out too." Tofu realized he still had the metal cigar box in his other hand. Almost as an afterthought he tossed it to Ranma. "Open it. I'm not sure what it will look like or how you will need to use it, but I can't let you leave here without it. Not after what I just saw you go through."

Ranma looked at the box but did not open it. "Huh? This got somethin' ta do with all the weird shit in my brain?"

"Yes. It's called the Saiserefu Noon. It will protect you and the others around you from… yourself."

Ranma looked at the box again. "What's wrong with me, doc? I wanna trust ya but I get edgy when people hide stuff from me."

Tofu sighed. He had been hiding the name of Ranma's predicament from him since he got there. If he told it to him, that one piece of information could tip the sensitive scales of fate against Ranma. But if he didn't, Ranma might do something…rash. "Ranma, It's called the Ijuu."

"The migration? What the hell does a migration got to do with going psycho at a pin drop?"

"It's an analogy of sorts. Just as birds migrate south when the weather gets too cold, so the aspects of your soul change location when your emotional environment becomes too perilous." 

"If ya ask me that's pretty weak."

"I suppose it is." Tofu said absently. Ranma's personalities were already beginning to merge. The old Ranma wouldn't even know what an analogy was, much less whether it was weak or not…or at least he wouldn't admit to it.

Ranma opened the box. She started laughing. 

"What's so funny, Ranma?"

"Aw come on, this is a joke right? Where's the real Saise-watchamacallit?"

"I'm afraid that's it." 

Ranma stopped laughing. She looked inside the box again. "You sure?"

"Yes."

"What the hell is this then!" Ranma took the Saiserefu Noon out of the box. 

Tofu looked closer, adjusting his glasses. It was a pair of butterfly earrings, made from the same strange metal as the box. They glowed an eerie blue and were very beautiful. "It looks like a pair of pretty earrings." Tofu commented.

"I KNOW that! What am I s'posed ta do with 'em?"

Tofu noticed something he overlooked before…They were made for pierced ears.

Tofu swallowed. He turned around. He found a sturdy section of wall and butted it with his head repeatedly in frustration. Why was this proving so difficult? 

"Hey Tofu, man, stop doin' that, you're gonna damage somethin'"

Tofu stopped, resting his forehead on the wall. "Sorry, Ranma, this hasn't been that great a morning for me either."

"Hey, no problem, believe me, I understand. But…how're we gonna deal with this? I mean even if I wanted ta I couldn't wear these things."

"I don't know, Ranma." Tofu sighed, turned around and slid his back down the wall so that he was sitting facing Ranma. He took his glasses off and rubbed his aching temples with his thumb and middle finger. "All I know is I can't let you leave here without them in. It's too dangerous."

Ranma looked at the earrings in the palm of her hand. While Tofu was mainly a chiropractor, he was also licensed as a general practitioner. Chances are there would be something to pierce ears with and if Ranma couldn't leave without having the earrings on…Yes, there was really only one thing she could do…

"So, Doc, where'm I gonna sleep?" 

~~~~~[END]~~~~~

Sorry it took so long to bring this out. I couldn't figure out how to transition from chapter 2 to here. I ended up just deciding not to worry about it and write the scene that I liked first. So I started with Shampoo. I actually have a large part of chapter four already written but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

It gets weirder.

I've decided to axe the glossary. If you don't know a word, there's an excellent site 

http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/dict 

where you can find pretty much anything you'll be likely to see in fanfictions (Verbs and adjectives are tricky though) You won't find Saiserefu Noon. though. Just say that five times fast and you'll know what it means. Japanese is fun:-)


	4. Neon Green

Thyself Known

Ch. 4: Neon Green

By Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: Ranma ½ and its characters all belong to Takahashi Rumiko and her cohorts. The voices in my head made me do it. 

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE: Ranma had a semi-lucid dream that caused the trigger of his curse to change. Now he's a girl when he feels girlie. He also changes his personalities to deal with whatever situation hits him. After having a major argument with Akane, injuring Happosai, almost raping Shampoo while in the Nekoken, and attempting to seduce Dr. Tofu, all in the space of some four hours, Ranma's extremely unstable. Tofu has a solution, but can Ranma be convinced to pierce his ears and wear a pair of pretty earrings? It's not exactly going well for anyone else either. Nabiki for one is getting eerie déjà vu from the whole mess...

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

_"But before help comes, slowly, imperceptibly at first, the entire consciousness of Phaedrus begins to come apart... to dissolve and fade away. Then gradually he no longer wonders what will happen next. He knows what will happen next, and tears flow for his family and for himself and for this world."_

  -Robert M. Pirsig _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.___

  Nabiki left her home wearing her blue school uniform and carrying her satchel. The satchel contained her laptop, her graphing calculator, and an abacus as well as the requisite notebooks, pencils and papers. Whenever possible she liked to use her abacus because it kept her mind sharp, and it kept her more valuable equipment from being seen by people who would be inclined to steal it. 

  This was not of course her only deterrent. Her computer had been stolen a grand total of twice. The first time was by a senior who had later found his little prank had caused him to be re-registered at Furinkan as a Freshman girl named Aima Horu. (Only in Nerima, where one's appearance did not necessarily indicate one's sex was this possible.) He had to change two of his classes and he was effectively barred from sports for a year before he was able to fix the problem. Also back then the uniform rule was more strictly enforced... 

  Nabiki could have bought four laptops from the money she got from the betting pools that year.

  The other time the laptop was stolen by a girl in Nabiki's own class who had wanted revenge for losing a fair bet. 

  Akane made lunch the next day. 

  Nabiki made the switch. 

  When the girl came back to school again after a week of recuperating she gave the laptop back to Nabiki without saying a word. No one had stolen anything from Nabiki since.

  She took her time walking away from the place she had lived her entire life. She was feeling introspective and she wasn't at all worried about being late. Sooner than she would like, she would have to move away. Away from the problems of Furinkan. Away from the complex life of Ranma Saotome. Away from the warm blanket of her mother's influence that hung around the house even so many years since her death. It was so comforting one minute, but then so stifling the next. 

  Her mother was dead. On days like today she wished she wasn't. On days like today she wished it was someone else's job to make sense of everything, because right now, Nabiki had no idea what was going on.

  Nabiki sighed as she approached the Tomo residence, the second house along the road. _No_, she thought, _that isn't true. I know exactly what's going on. At least part of it._

  Four or five minutes ago, hurricane Akane and typhoon Ranma had left for school, leaving Nabiki and the others to contemplate the aftermath. Nabiki's thoughts at that moment had been first that it was rather silly for Ranma to go to school, but then she thought back, and remembered how strange Happosai had acted, the mind control, him telling her she was "scary enough as it is" and how it didn't seem like a joke. Then she remembered Ranma and how cold the redhead's expression was. How it reminded her of a different face. One she saw in the bathroom one horrible night. Directly in front of her and above the sink....

  She had left the house and now she was here, walking to the Tomos' garage. When she got there, Nabiki knocked on the aluminum slats of the garage door. She smiled slightly at the irony. Ranma and Akane were martial artists. Even Akane could, if she so chose, try out for the Olympics and no doubt place in almost any event... except of course swimming. Nabiki, on the other hand, was not an athlete. And yet even though Ranma and Akane ran as fast as they could to get to school on time every morning, Nabiki always got there before them. 

  The garage door opened, revealing a highly modified neon green Model G Honda moped. Next to it was a more traditional red and black Yamaha motorcycle. The motorcycle belonged to Nabiki's friend and compatriot, Hoko Tomo. The moped...was Nabiki's. Both bikes sat next to a slightly discolored space in the floor where the Tomo car was kept when it wasn't being used.

  To Nabiki's mild surprise the person who had opened up the garage door was not Hoko, but her mother. 

   "Good morning, Nabiki-chan," Tomo-san greeted with a slight bow of her head as she released her finger from the button on the right wall that opened the door. 

   "Good morning, Tomo-san." Nabiki bowed deeper to show respect, however she could never bring herself to take her eyes off anyone...something she retained from her childhood long ago, when she still practiced the Art. Her friends and associates sometimes remarked that this was unsettling. "Is there anything wrong?"

   "Nothing to worry about... Just...Hoko-chan has a fever this morning so she can't go to school. I called Tofu's office but the message said he was closed for the day. I hope he opens again soon... I just don't trust those hospital doctors." Hoko's mother was wearing a flowery house dress and slippers. Even though the days were pleasantly warm now, the mornings could still be chilly. A slight draft whispered through Tomo-san's dress and made her grab her bare and suddenly goose pimpled arms. 

  She was an attractive woman in a motherly sort of way. Right now, however Nabiki felt like she could count all the years on the middle-aged woman's face. "Well, tell her I hope she gets better soon." Nabiki walked to her moped and lifted the helmet off the back. Nabiki looked back at Hoko's mother staring outside and rubbing her arms. "It's probably just the temperature change. I know a few people, they _always get sick around this time."_

Tomo-san turned her head back toward Nabiki as if surprised, "Yes. Yes, you're probably right. People get sick all the time. It's nothing to worry about." Tomo-san smiled weakly, and turned back away.

  Nabiki nodded hesitantly and put her helmet on. She got her keys out of her book bag and sat on the bike. She kicked the kickstand back. She paused for a moment. "I'll check by Dr. Tofu's after school today if you want..."

  Tomo-san gave a small nod

  Nabiki put the keys in and revved the engine. She rolled out of the garage and looked back once more at Hoko's mom. She lifted a hand for goodbye and Tomo-san absently followed suit. Then Nabiki sped away as the garage door started to whir slowly closed.

  Nabiki always had a knack for reading people. It was glaringly obvious to her that Tomo-san was, in fact, extremely worried. A part of her wanted to make Hoko's mom feel better, but what could she say? It was just a cold? It didn't mean anything? There were enough life-threatening diseases out there that started out as colds that there was no way she could be sure that was true. And Nabiki couldn't tell Hoko's mom that...Even if part of her wanted to see her cry, wanted to see the terror and sorrow in her eyes. Even if part of her wanted Hoko to get sick and die so she wouldn't have to worry about her anymore...

  No, the overriding feeling was that it was none of her business. Best to distance herself from it. Think about something else. 

  So Nabiki just let the cool morning wind refresh her as she sped down the road. Every now and then her uniform skirt would flip up, revealing the short shorts Nabiki wore underneath. Nabiki smiled. Somehow she had managed to keep her obsession secret far longer than she had thought possible. Nabiki loved secrets and the bike was a big one. 

  There was more to it than that though. 

  Nabiki increased her speed as she reached a busy street. Soon she was generating a lot of wind and dodging vehicles and pedestrians like Pac-man on speed. Many colorful expletives were uttered at her, but if Nabiki heard them at all, they were distorted by a massive Doppler effect. 

  On a bike the world spun differently. Navigating through the obstructions presented Nabiki with a fresh onslaught of problems that had nothing to do with normal life...and everything to do with it. Sometimes when it looked like she was going to take a heavy loss in the betting pool or in the stocks she imagined herself on the street riding...and suddenly she would know exactly what to do.

  Nabiki accelerated. The Model G was the cheapest bike she could find. As her business extended outside Furinkan High to other parts of Tokyo, she needed a mode of transport. As the money started pouring in, she bought parts for the bike and modified it. Right now the speedometer was showing about 150kmh. This was a good cruising speed. Just enough to provide Nabiki with a challenge.

*

  When he saw the neon green blur, Kawagami Hiro revved up the engine of his police motorcycle, spat out a wad of gum and put his silver sunglasses on with his left hand. There was no way she was going to escape him this time. She was fast, but she had to slow down sooner or later. He would catch this crazy bitch once and for all. He kicked back his kick stand and sped out on to the street, becoming a loud black and white blur of movement. Hiro flicked on his lights almost as an after thought as he pursued his prey.

*

  Nabiki saw the cop in her shaking mirror and smiled. The man was pathetic. He had been trying to catch her for two weeks now, but it was always the same story. She would lose him, and she would still arrive at her destination with time to spare. In front of her, two large trucks loomed, side by side, stopped at the red light. Without giving the situation a second thought, she passed on their right, merged into the leftward moving traffic, u-turned into the rightward moving traffic and turned left onto her original street.  She knew Number 542, safety freak that he was, would stop at the light until the traffic died down. She sped through the relatively stationary vehicles a little more leisurely now, only going about 120 kilometers per hour or so. She loved this. In fact, there was only one thing Nabiki loved more…

*

Hiro cursed at the scooter as it sped away. The four dollar signs on the license plate seemed to be laughing at him. Fortunately the light turned green only a second or two after the girl completed her little stunt. Hiro smiled. No, she wasn't going to slip by this time.

*

  Of course the modifications weren't the only reason Nabiki could go so fast. She was also a damned good driver. Hoko had introduced Nabiki to the motorbike world and her friend was amazed at how easily Nabiki took to it. Nabiki didn't have any explanation except that her hand eye coordination was still pretty good from her training. The coordination exercises had begun almost immediately after she was born, and that sort of thing doesn't go away. She didn't mention this to Hoko though. The last thing she needed was everyone thinking she knew martial arts. She had enough trouble explaining the dojo. The cars in front of Nabiki stopped. She drove onto the side walk and dodged past a few people before hitting the road again. She was a little worried about Ranma…

*

  Hiro stared at what the girl did. How could anyone be so disrespectful of other people? How could she risk so many lives? How could she show such disregard for the Law?! How could she be so amazing….? Hiro shook his head free of that last thought. The girl, whoever she was, was an accident waiting to happen. She had to be brought down. Hiro didn't deny that he would take great pleasure in THAT. He followed as best he could without endangering any innocents…

*

  Ranma had reminded Nabiki so much of herself this morning. What she saw in his eyes… it made her remember that terrible time after mother died and before she found her second love. She was obsessed with money and even at the fragile age of ten, she was planning the family budget and making small time business transactions. Nabiki was a genius by most standards, and she often took pride in that, but as a genius she found few friends and so had to harden herself against the world. 

  Nabiki saw that 542 was gaining on her. She slowed down just enough and made a sharp left turn into a long alley way. 

  As dumpsters and fire escapes whizzed past her, Nabiki thought of how fast her so-called childhood had passed her by. Nabiki smiled, melancholy at the few happy moments, when Daddy wasn't so bad, or when one of her schemes paid off better than expected. She was just starting then, though and most of her attempts to make money were massive failures. 

  Akane grew increasingly intolerable. She seemed to lord it over Nabiki that she was a martial artist and that Nabiki was not, even though she knew that Nabiki had quit along with Kasumi after Mom died. 

  Nabiki grimaced. She knew a lot of people. Associates she dealt with during business transactions... Many of them would tell her the short version of their life story in a vain attempt to gain sympathy. What struck Nabiki about the majority of these stories was how the transition from childhood to adulthood could be so smooth. Nabiki saw the dead end of the alley approaching her and she prepared for it as she thought about how her childhood ended. She knew the precise moment when it did...

  ...It was the moment when she took the gun.

  Nabiki sped toward the dead end, but instead of slowing down, she increased her speed, and just a meter before she reached it, she veered right. Her front wheel went up a broken piece of furniture a homeless man was using as a lean-to, and farther up onto the side of the alley way.  Nabiki was fully horizontal to the ground for a moment. Then, just before the front wheel reached the face of the building that marked the dead end, Nabiki ollied the neon green Model G away from the wall and  turned the wheel to a precise angle, hitting the face of the building at just the right vector so that the bike would roll down instead of crashing. She sped down the building for a split second before she hit the street again with a bone rattling jolt, followed soon after by a jarring thud as the back end of the bike hit the ground. 

  All this took maybe a second, and she had lost only a little speed.

*

  Hiro, having followed the girl into the alley was extremely surprised when she passed him from the opposite direction at such a speed. He didn't know what he saw when the crazy girl had reached the dead end. He knew what he THOUGHT he saw, but THAT was impossible. Stunned and frustrated, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed that his own turn around wasn't nearly as graceful. In his surprise he tried to do a U-turn. He ended up falling over and skidding along the pavement a meter or so. He was pretty sure his clothes were ruined and his left side was at least severely bruised.

   "Itte." He murmured managing to capture feelings of anger, defeat, and outright pain in the two syllables.

  Suddenly he smiled. He had gotten a good look at the driver finally. That wasn't just any ugly blue dress she was wearing... That was a Furinkan High uniform. 

  Now if this were any normal speeder, Hiro would radio headquarters and tell them where she was headed so that she could be arrested, but this wasn't just a one time thing. She had managed to practically disappear again and again. She out maneuvered him so fast that he couldn't even give her position over the mic. Hiro was the fastest biker on the force. His reputation was on the line. 

  This was personal.

  Hiro picked himself and his motorcycle up and checked himself. No major injuries, though he'd feel like hell tomorrow. It was amazing really that he hadn't suffered more. He revved the bike's engine again, it sounded good. His favorite sunglasses had fallen off and now lay cracked on the ground. Hiro sighed, and put his second pair on, these were just as over sized as the others but were only darkly tinted as opposed to silvered. That girl would PAY! He drove out of the alley, and down the road at a normal, sane person's pace. He stopped at a public phone. He put his card in and dialed. 

   "Hey, Ryu, ya there? Listen I've got a favor to ask... Oh nothin' much, I just want you to organize a few things when I give a signal..." After Hiro finished explaining what he wanted he drove to Furinkan high school, purposely taking his time. He found a nice shady area where he could see all the traffic in and out and waited. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Nabiki liked school well enough, but the actual getting taught part of it could get tedious at times. She generally kept to the back of the class so she could plan out her business transactions without the teacher knowing. 

  First period was history, a class Nabiki could ace fairly easily as long as she didn't pay any attention to the teacher and read the book. If she paid any attention to the teacher, the whole thing got muddied up because the fool kept getting the names and dates wrong. Today though, after parking her bike and meeting some associates before the bell, she had sat down in History and couldn't bring herself to work on her ledger. 

   "Now what we're going to talk about today is very important to remember class," Omo-sensei began, "Today we're going to talk about World War Two." 

   "Now who can tell me what day 'Pac-man' was dropped on Hiroshima?"

  A girl in the front raised her hand. She always raised her hand. 

   "Yes, Juri, what's the answer."

   "My name is Arisu, sensei"

   "Ah, so it is. So what date was 'Riddle ploy' dropped on Hiroshima?"

   "You mean 'Little boy?'"

   "Yes, what was the date of that great tragedy in Okinawa?"

   "Um, Okinawa, sir?"

   "No, that's incorrect. Anybody?"

  The other students knew by now not to try to answer. 

  Sometimes Arisu would leave the classroom crying. 

   "I'm saddened by this generation's lack of national pride. This is an important time. The Germans devastated two of our cities with their nuclear families! Trillions died!"

  Nabiki watched all this from the back room as if it was an absurd dream. It was sad, Oma-sensei actually knew more about history than almost anyone, but while he could write it down just fine, if he had to speak, everything went out the window. Once someone suggested he could try singing. That had worked, but he had such an awful voice he had to stop. It sounded about as bad as Akane's cooking tasted.

  Nuclear families...Nabiki had been in one once. It was hard to imagine now. She could still remember Mom. She could still remember being a kid. But she couldn't remember how the politics of it had worked. What had Akane done when she wasn't the only martial artist? What had Kasumi done when Mom was the one that cooked? What had Daddy done when Mom was still there? As Nabiki tried to put it together in her mind Oma-sensei equivocated to the class until the bell for second period sounded, breaking Nabiki's reverie.

  Second period was first semester Calculus . Normally Nabiki was more active in this class. She knew Calculus already, but she found a certain joy in solving problems and getting them right. But today she could barely pay attention. 

   "Nabiki?" Anguru-sensei jolted Nabiki out of her woolgathering.

   "Sorry, sensei, what was the question again?"

   "When you take the derivative of a tangent line, what do you get."

  Nabiki frowned. This was a pretty simple question. "A slope, a constant rate of change."

   "Right so what do you need to draw the line?"

   "A point. Specifically, the point where the tangent line touches the graph of the function."

   "Thank you. You may go back to your dreams of world domination now."

  The other five people in the room chuckled.

  Furinkan High was not all that big on academia.

  What WAS the point? Why was Nabiki feeling so off today? It was Ranma of course. He was the function. And the point....that look in his eyes...that look of deadness...That's what was pulling Nabiki along this tangent. She didn't want to remember the day she had seen that look before. She didn't want to, but she knew...she had to.

  Nabiki got up from her chair. The teacher nearly dropped her chalk in surprise. Without even excusing herself, Nabiki left the room. She stopped by her locker to retrieve her shoes and after a moments hesitation, she but her satchel in as well. She should be back before school was out. 

  She left Furinkan and its betting pools and social circles. She found her bike, put her helmet on, and took off. She needed the bike right now. The sense of freedom. The speed. Most of all though, she needed the privacy.

*

  Hiro had thought he would have to wait until school was out. He had been just about ready to go buy something to eat for lunch when the green demon chick came tearing out of the school grounds like a bat out of hell. "Hey hey, playin' hooky on top of it all... this gets better'n better." He smiled and picked up the mic from it's cradle. "Anyone out there wanna make a quick buck?" That was the signal. Hiro would probably catch hell for using police frequencies for something like that but it would be worth it if he could catch this girl and find out what the hell her problem was. He wondered idly what her name was...He frowned, not that it fucking mattered. He gunned the engine violently and took off after the Model G.

*

  Nabiki sped along the road. She had to start at the beginning. The memory was too raw to just go right into it. She thought about the end of her childhood, the gun. 

  At fifteen, Nabiki was starting to get into more dangerous deals, and she was spending more and more time in the...shadier parts of Tokyo. She had a paid bodyguard by the name of Ichiro she had follow her. He was extremely large for an Asian and until that day she hadn't had any major problems. That day though something had gone wrong. Just before she and Ichiro got to the meeting point she heard gun shots... Her contact then came running, his eyes wide. 

   "Quick, take this! I'll pay you back later!" and he threw something at Nabiki, which she caught. 

  It was a gun.

  The man had owed Nabiki money and was meeting her to pay her back. Apparently he also owed the Yakuza money. Through some freakish stroke of luck he had escaped them by taking the leader's gun. Nabiki never found out more than that. She had decided she wanted no more dealings with the man. 

  The reasoning behind keeping the gun seemed so clear to her at the time. She felt that Akane was right, she wasn't a martial artist, and so she needed some form of protection. Japan had strict gun laws, but she could still practice shooting in the sewers under Tokyo with bullets bought through the black market. She had gotten quite good, and she enjoyed it, but she hadn't realized how much she had lost.

  She hadn't realized until the day that Akane threatened her.

  It was really stupid. Akane wanted to go see a movie with her friends only she didn't have any money. She asked Nabiki for some but Nabiki said, rightly, that they didn't have enough. This was before the massive windfall Nabiki experienced when Kuno issued his challenge... and funds were EXTREMELY tight. She had already had to fire Ichiro, and she was very close to pawning some of the security equipment she had invested in over the years. Then Akane said, half jokingly, that she could just take the money from Nabiki by force if she wanted to. 

  Nabiki loved her sisters and father, but even with them, she was cold as ice when money or something equally serious was concerned. And the mere idea that Akane, could THINK that she could do such a thing…it awakened something dark in Nabiki…and she pulled out her gun.

  Nabiki grew aware of a sound. A rhythmic "whump"ing sound that seemed to be following her, getting closer. It reminded her of the sound of her heart that day, when she held the gun pointed at Akane's forehead and she saw the fear in her sister's eyes...

   Nabiki realized with a shake of her head that the sound was not from her memory but was above her. She looked up. "A helicopter?"  The craft was almost right on top of her, big as a house. In Nabiki's shock, she failed to see the car in front of her… until it was too late.

  Nabiki tried to swerve and do a wheelie at the same time, but her body knew before she did that this maneuver wouldn't work. She launched herself on to the side walk and watched her bike speed up the low frame of a car and spin into the air. She noted its trajectory as coldly as she had noted the sweat rolling down Akane's temple. It was headed spinning toward a woman and her baby. 

  A darkness she had lived with for two years now wanted the bike to make contact, to cause DAMAGE, to DESTROY. It was the same darkness that made Nabiki cock the pistol… that made her finger grow tighter against the cool trigger of the loaded gun. 

  She had wanted Akane to die then. She CRAVED it. She NEEDED to see blood seep from a wound that would never heal. But she loved her sister. She didn't want to see her hurt. She didn't want to see anybody hurt. No. NO! "NOOOOOOOOOO!"

  Nabiki felt some burning thing tear from her just before the concrete slammed into her shoulder.

*

  Hiro came onto the scene just in time to catch the accident. He saw the girl jump from the bike. He saw the bike spinning toward the lady with the baby. It was going to hit them. It couldn't have been more than five centimeters away from the woman's face and then…the girl screamed "No!" and...for just the slightest of moments, Hiro could swear the girl flashed a bright green before hitting the ground jarringly. Hiro was distracted but when he heard the sound of scrap metal hitting the pavement he looked back. Some how the bike had been blown to bits, none of the pieces falling near the woman and baby, who looked completely unharmed. 

  Hiro was not new to Nerima. He'd heard stories from the other cops about the martial artists in the area, but he hadn't paid much attention. He figured that their warnings didn't pertain to his area of influence. What good were martial arts when you had to rely on a machine? Now he wondered…

*

  Nabiki felt completely drained, and she seemed to be bathing in pain. When her eyes were open all she could see was colored dots, so she closed them. She remembered... If Kasumi had not been there Akane would be dead. Just at the moment when the pressure on the trigger would have sent a bullet flying through Akane's precious head… Kasumi had said something completely disarming.

   "I really wish you two would stop fighting so much," she said.

  In Nabiki's warped state of mind she almost shot Kasumi instead. Didn't she understand the seriousness of the situation? She was about to murder her sister! This wasn't just a childish spat! 

  Then Nabiki went over what she had just thought. 

  It WAS just a childish spat, and Nabiki was about to murder her sister because SHE didn't understand the seriousness of the situation! 

  The tears started coming then, tears she hadn't realized she had been holding. Tears for her mother, but mostly tears for herself, for losing her innocence, for almost losing so much more. 

  An hour or so later, Nabiki was in the bathroom. Her reflection hovered over the sink. Once again she felt the need to destroy, to obliterate. But this time the barrel of the gun was in her mouth. The look that she saw in her eyes, the eyes of her reflection, made her feel the need even more. It was like a feedback loop of depression and hate. Nabiki was maybe five seconds away from pulling the trigger when she heard Kasumi's steps as she entered the open doorway. It was almost funny...she had stopped putting pressure on the trigger because of a vague thought that Kasumi would disapprove of the action. The gun was still in her mouth, though, until Kasumi spoke.

  She had hesitated for a second, and then, in a voice that seemed full of compassion and understanding…asked if Nabiki wanted some tea. 

  It was out of the blue…completely unexpected. But suddenly instead of having the inevitability of the barrel of a 9mm, Nabiki was given a choice between a bullet in the brain and tea. 

  Nabiki chose tea. 

  No one ever mentioned it. Daddy probably never even knew about it, and for the most part the whole incident was forgotten, but it was a wake up call for Nabiki. She sold the gun, ended almost all of her black market dealings, and vowed to rely solely on her camera from then on. Nabiki hadn't yet completely enmeshed herself into the criminal element or she would not have been able to get out at all.  As it was it was close. Way too close...

  Back home, Akane never threatened Nabiki with violence again, and Nabiki never again mistook Kasumi's overly positive attitude for air headedness, but other than that things fell into the same pattern they had before. Nabiki never forgot the look in her eyes that night though. She still had nightmares from time to time, and those dark feelings, that wish for death...it never completely left her. It was there, waiting for a moment of weakness. But Nabiki fought it. She fought it for two years, and while it remained, she had grown stronger.

  Nabiki's last thought before losing consciousness from fatigue and a rising awareness of pain… was about driving the Model G. There was only one thing she loved more…her family. And it seemed Ranma had somehow managed to weasel himself into that group.

  Damn him. Nabiki smiled... and passed out.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Sitting on the outside porch in his gi, watching the morning sun glint off the koi pond, Genma wondered about his wife. 

  He missed her right now. The years of their time together held many quiet moments like this one, except she was by Genma's side or maybe in the kitchen cooking, or maybe asleep a few meters away. Now…now she was separated from him by half an entire city and all because of a question.

  Was Ranma a man among men? 

  Had Genma been thinking, he would have asked just what Nodoka had meant by that before signing the contract. Genma hadn't been thinking though. Thinking was never Genma's strong point. Even if he had been doing an awful lot of it recently.

  He knew exactly what "man among men" meant now. 

  It was odd, but Genma couldn't remember why it was he had agreed to the contract. The story he would tell was that he needed to get Ranma away from his mother's coddling, but that wasn't it really. As nice as Nodoka was, she could be very stern, and if anything Ranma would have been better off if she was around. 

  In fact, Genma didn't remember much of his marriage with Nodoka at all. Just little things, like the taste of her cooking, and that when he was with her, he was happy. 

  He needed her.

  It was time for this charade to end.

  Genma stood up and walked into the family room through the engawa entrance. He picked up the receiver to the black telephone and punched the numbers he had punched at payphones all around Nerima since he had started living with the Tendos. 

   "Hello? Who, may I ask, is calling?" The woman on the other end asked.

   "It's me." Genma answered.

   "Why Mr. Panda! How good of you to call!"

  Genma smiled in spite of himself. Nodoka could always make him laugh.

~~~~~*~~~~~            

   "What the hell is that?" Ranma asked. Tofu was wielding some sort of weird gun-like thing and approaching her menacingly.

   "It's for your own good, Ranma," Tofu smiled. The expression was somewhat strained, though. If Ranma didn't get her ears pierced she would never leave. Tofu liked Ranma fine, but he wasn't sure even he could stand Ranma LIVING with him. It was a lucky thing that he happened to have some ear piercing equipment handy. Now if Ranma would just sit still…

   "Like hell it is! You get that thing outta my face before I rearrange yours!"   
   "Please don't make this difficult, Ranma. This will do a much better job of piercing your ears than anything else. The equipment is sterile, and there's only a little pain…" Tofu stepped closer to Ranma. The ear piercing gun poised about half a meter from her ear. His ear. He had changed sexes again.

   "I, Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts…accept your challenge." _This is great! Ranma thought. _I'm a man again AND I get to fight Tofu!._ Ranma knew Tofu was good…it was time to find out HOW good. _

  Tofu noted Ranma's change with clinical curiosity. It meant several things. Ranma felt most like a man when he was fighting, for one. This was understandable. What was interesting was that Ranma did not change until the moment before he accepted Tofu's "challenge."  His feeling of manhood was NOT related to fighting in and of itself…it was something else…something deeper. Something perhaps to do with the pride he had of himself and his school, but that wasn't quite it either… Tofu, lost in thought, almost forgot to block Ranma's kick.

  Ranma quickly reassessed Tofu's abilities. It looked like he was barely paying attention! He followed up with some high speed punches and kicks, but Tofu blocked or dodged them all while wearing a placid, thoughtful expression on his face. How could he BE this good? At this rate, Ranma would have to move the fight outside or risk damaging the clinic. There was still one thing he could try though…

  When was Ranma a girl?  Tofu tried to remember when it was Ranma had changed… He was upset about Akane…He said he ran away…Then he started crying. It was when he started crying. Yes…but why? It couldn't just be crying that caused him to change. WHY was he crying? Akane didn't love him. Hmmm… maybe that's it. After Tofu blocked Ranma's Chestnut Fist, Tofu decided to experiment…"You know, it's tough, but just because Akane doesn't love you, it's not the end of the world."

  Ranma collected his jaw from the floor after having one of his strongest attacks so easily blocked. "You leave Akane outta this!" Ranma forgot for a moment where he was and let his anger guide him. He threw the fastest Amaguriken he had ever managed while male. One punch made it through Tofu's defenses. But that was it.

   "Ooof!" Okay, it wasn't Akane that made Ranma change. And Ranma was extremely talented. Tofu had been training all his life for twenty six years and Ranma was only 17. Nine years of extra experience and still the kid managed to get a good hit in. Tofu decided he wouldn't hold back QUITE so much. The arm of his free hand seemed to become a solid funnel with indistinct edges as he performed his own high speed maneuver, hitting Ranma's chest with his two fingers with just enough force to bruise. Then, simultaneously he lightly front kicked him back onto the examination table.

   "Ow." Ranma said.

  So what was it that made Ranma change? Maybe feeling weak? That he was somehow afraid of Akane and that made him change? It was a long shot but Tofu was willing to try it. "Ranma, you seem to be overreacting a bit. It's just a small hole in your ears…There's nothing to be scared about."

   "I ain't scared!" Ranma yelled back...then he relaxed. This was Tofu, and Ranma was not going to pull an Akane and pretend he could beat him in a fair fight. It would take some massive training first. Tofu was just trying to help. Maybe if he shared a little emotional stuff Tofu would show him a few moves "Well…maybe I am scared a little. Not about the pain. It just seems like everyone's tryin' ta turn me inta some stinkin' girl…" 

  Ranma had remained male through the confession. Tofu didn't understand. What could possibly be the trigger? Maybe it was just some sort of strange form of suggestion? Maybe Ranma turned female when he THOUGHT she was female? Tofu was grasping at straws now, but it was important to find out now, and not be surprised later. "I…um…just hit a pressure point that will make you unable to turn male again…after you change."

  The color went out of Ranma's face. This had to be one of Tofu's jokes right? That weird sense of humor of his? He made an attempt at a smile "Heh that was good, doc…almost got me there…"

   "Um…it's not a joke" Tofu grimaced. Technically it wasn't a joke. It just wasn't the truth either. 

   "ARGHH! Why can't you people realize that I don't WANT my decisions made for me?"

  Tofu felt real bad, he just thanked the gods that he HADN'T hit any such pressure point. Ranma hadn't changed form. He had to end the ruse…

   "Well I had enough of it you hear?! ENOUGH!" Ranma got back into a fighting stance. Tofu had betrayed him.  And while he might not stand a chance in a fair fight, she was no longer interested in fighting fair. "I'm going to KILL YOU!"

  Before Tofu knew it, he was looking at the floor of his bedroom from a unique perspective. He had just enough time to notice that the insulation could use some refurbishing, when his head was pulled back through the floor and he was thrown into the wall, "into" being a highly accurate preposition. It seemed that 9 years of extra experience or no, the only reason why Ranma was unable to beat Tofu before was that he had been held in check by the same thing that made him feel like a man…his sense of self worth, honor, and morality. "Calm down Ranma, I didn't hit any pressure points. I just had to see what would make you change."

   "You mean you were just playing with me??? TOFU NO BAKA!" Ranma hit Tofu over the head with a mallet she got from…somewhere. Ranma stared at it for a while until it winked out of existence. Where did it come from? Where did it go?

   "Where did YOU come from, Cotton-eyed Joe?" Tofu asked the coat rack in a bit of a daze from the repeated blows to the head. His glasses had left his head somewhere between the wall and the ceiling.

  There was a knocking from the door "Oh my! I wonder who that could be!" Ranma wondered out loud as she walked to the door.

   "K-K-Kasumi! When did you get here?"

   "Oh Tofu, you're so silly!" Ranma said, then opened the door.

  A woman looking about thirtyish and carrying a baby greeted her. "You must be Ranma?"

  Ranma nodded her head slowly. She WAS Ranma…not big sister Kasumi. 

   "I've heard a lot about you…Is Dr. Tofu in?"

  Ranma glanced over at the good doctor doing the cha cha with the coat rack. "Well, yes and no… You can talk to him if you want, but he's a little disoriented right now. May I ask what your name is?"

   "Yamashita Niburi, please go easy on me. Kasumi-chan isn't here is she?"

   "No, it's nothing like that. Tofu-sensei and I had a minor altercation, and I'm afraid I went a little too far. Who's the little one? He's very cute!"

   "You don't sound like the Ranma I've heard about. He's supposed to be very crude and, so sorry, masculine." Oddly, Yamashita seemed to hold the baby tighter, but gave no other indication that she had heard Ranma's comment.

   "Oh, that's just my father's influence. I'm getting better. I still revert to the old me from time to time though. No matter what anyone says, I'm really a woman." Ranma ignored the woman's stunned expression; she was used to it after all. She realized Mrs. Yamashita was still standing outside "Come inside, I'm sure Tofu-sensei won't mind!"

  Yamashita entered, taking her shoes off at the genkan. She wondered what her friend would think about what Ranma had said. That was a thought for a different time though. "Nabiki-chan will be here shortly, she had an accident. You might be a help actually."

   "Nabiki-neechan had an accident? That doesn't sound like her much at all."

   "So sorry, but I don't think you know her as well as you think, Ranma-chan."

*

  Hiro watched as the door to the Tofu clinic opened, admitting the woman and her baby. He wasn't quite sure why he was here. Tendo Nabiki, that was the lunatic's name, was put on a stretcher and carried into an ambulance. The woman who almost got hit by the motor scooter, a Mrs. Yamashita, far from making any complaints, had actually insisted that Nabiki be taken here for reasons she didn't care to discuss. The paramedics agreed, it was close by after all and Nabiki's injuries weren't that serious. They were mainly dispatched as a precaution anyway. 

  He looked at his watch. Some twenty minutes had passed since the actual accident. Most of that was spent waiting for the ambulance and driving behind it as, even with its emergency lights flashing, it's bulk wouldn't allow it to drive at even half Nabiki's previous speed, and because it wasn't an emergency and it was getting close to lunch time, it was actually amazing it didn't take longer. It would have been quicker to walk! 

  Still, Hiro hadn't actually realized that he was following the ambulance until it had stopped. It was only when the paramedics brought Nabiki out in the stretcher that he could say what it was he hoped to accomplish by being here. He wanted to know what the hell he had seen, and…he still had to give Nabiki a proper arrest. Smiling, he popped a stick of cinnamon gum into his mouth and followed Nabiki's stretcher into the Tofu clinic.

*

  When Ranma saw Nabiki she knew that Yamashita-san was right. She didn't know Nabiki that well at all. From the look of her dislocated shoulder and broken arm, she had taken a fall at a pretty high velocity. And when Ranma checked her aura…she could only see a faint sparkling here and there. "She's almost completely drained of ki!"

  Yamashita-san nodded. "I brought her over here as soon as I could. "

This kind of ki depletion didn't happen unless you used an awful lot of it. It also meant that, despite appearances, Nabiki could very well die. Tofu needed to wake up SOON. Ranma hurried over to him. "Tofu-sensei you need to snap out of it okay? Nabiki-neechan is here and she needs your help."

  Tofu brought himself out of his stupor and noted his current situation. He didn't have his glasses on but he could see well enough as long as he didn't need to read or apply any exact pressure points. Two paramedics were waiting for him patiently around a girl in a stretcher…Nabiki. Ranma was there still, so she hadn't run off. He saw Mrs. Yamashita and bowed. "Good morning Yamashita-san how are you today?"

   "Okay."

   "Good to hear. And how is Mr. Yamashita?" Tofu asked with a smile indicating the baby.

   "As good as he can be considering he's more than thirty years younger than he ought to be." Yamashita-san replied tersely. "So sorry, but Nabiki-chan needs your attention more than I do at the moment."

  Tofu then saw Nabiki. Her ki was almost completely gone! Tofu hadn't seen a case this severe in years! He'd have to look in a manual and perform a few precise pressure points…damn. Tofu addressed the two paramedics that came in with Nabiki. "Either of you know anything about ki deprivation?"

   "Hmm… is that like when you can't get into your car?" The one on the left asked earnestly.

   "Nah…I think its when one of the notes on a piano is missing."

   "Never mind," Tofu said wearily, "You two might as well go." Tofu saw a police officer come in after they left. "What are you doing here?"

   "I'm here to arrest her, sir," Hiro said around the wad of gum in his mouth "I'll just wait until she wakes up if that's okay."

   "Fine. Whatever. Ranma?" 

   "Yes, Tofu-sensei?"

   "Go to my library and find a book titled 'Deforestation of the Japanese Wilderness' Also, see if you can find my glasses. Hurry."

  Ranma did as Tofu asked. She knew the seriousness of Nabiki's situation. Luckily all of Tofu's books were ordered by title and Ranma was able to find the book after only a minute or so of searching. He pulled it out of the shelf and ran back to where Nabiki lay, stopping briefly to pick Tofu's glasses off the floor. "Here ya go, doc. How is she lookin'?"

  Tofu did a quick double take at Ranma's change back to male form and then quickly put his slightly bent glasses on and opened the book. "She has a chance now..."

   "Doc, how's that book gonna help?"

   "Ah... ki...it means 'tree' as well as spiritual energy. Deforestation, ki deprivation...it's a sort of pun...Okay here it is!"  Tofu looked over Nabiki again and grimaced. "She's fading fast... I hope there's still time." He picked up Nabiki's limp arms and crossed the wrists over a specific spot on her fore head. It was probably aggravating the broken right arm but it was necessary.

   "Doc... her third eye's a little higher..."

   "Yes, you're right..." Tofu moved Nabiki's wrists a half centimeter higher. "Ranma...could you hold her wrists like this? Don't let them move from position. Also...you seem to see the aura clearer...you're going to have to be my eyes. She's very faint."

   "Uh...sure," and Ranma did as Tofu asked.

  Tofu gently grasped Nabiki's ankles and, turning the girl's lower body so that her knees bent to one side, he pressed them to her rear. Luckily the girl was surprisingly flexible, most likely from Yoga Tofu surmised. It would explain how she would be able to release so much ki without showing much skill in the Art. Holding Nabiki's ankles in position with his right hand he placed his left a little below the navel then he paused. "Ranma...can you see the center of the prostatic plexus?"

   "Huh?"

   "Her water chakra... can you see it?" Normally Tofu could find its exact location without difficulty, but the aura was so weak... 

   "Um yeah. It's ...it's just a little lower than where you're at." Ranma watched the doctor move his hand slowly downward until the palm was right at the spot. "Yeah that's it right there. You tryin ta make her pee herself or something?" Ranma asked confused and quite a bit worried.

   "Let me know if her breathing becomes irregular." 

   "Right...sure thing..."Ranma swallowed.

  Tofu focused and sent a measure of ki through his arm out of his hand and into Nabiki's water chakra. He allowed himself a grimace as the girl did, in fact, wet herself. It would have happened anyway. Hopefully though the small amount of ki he gave Nabiki would jumpstart her and he'd feel her ki flowing back toward him. The arms and legs served to loop the ki flow back and keep as little of the energy from escaping as possible... Tofu stopped. It wasn't working. 

   "Uh...Doc?"

   "What is it Ranma?"

   "You told me to tell ya if her breath got irregular?"

   "Yes?"

   "Well, she kinda stopped breathing. Is that bad?"

  Tofu's eyes went wide. "Ranma...do you know CPR?"

  Ranma shook his head.

   "I need to find some way to get her ki back but she's not going to make it unless..." Tofu was hit by the look on the martial artist's face. He was pale, his eyes wide and moist with threatening tears. 

Ranma was afraid. 

*

  Ranma wasn't the only one. Hiro watched everything with amusement until the pigtailed guy said the Tendo girl wasn't breathing. He was shocked at first. The girl just had a few broken bones...why would she stop breathing? The doctor had kept going on about trees and spiritual energy, and he supposed it had something to do with that blast she let out...must of over-exerted her or something...served her right...but he really didn't understand what was going on. 

  Not breathing...needing CPR...THAT he understood all too well. Watching your father die of a heart attack at the age of five, while the paramedics took their sweet time getting to him, and not knowing what to do, feeling so damned USELESS...That did a lot to change a man. Hiro never made it to med school, but he sure as hell knew CPR now and he wasn't about to let someone else die. Not on his watch.

  Not thinking a second longer, he rushed to the doctor's side. "I know CPR. Leave her to me." The doctor nodded and Hiro checked the Tendo girl's pulse...it wasn't there. He shook her once just to be sure, but there was no response. He felt along the ribcage and used his fingers to find the right place to press. Taking a breath, he took off his sunglasses, put them in his breast pocket, swallowed his gum, and started resuscitating.

*

  Tofu gritted his teeth as he tried once again to jumpstart Nabiki's ki production. This wasn't good. If the CPR didn't make Nabiki start breathing again her ki wouldn't be able to regenerate itself...           

   "Doc, what do we do now?" Ranma asked over Nabiki's head.

   "I don't know Ranma. This is the most serious case I've seen...the only other way that Nabiki can be revived is through a full ki transfusion and that's impossible..."

   "What do you mean it's impossible?"

   "The only documented case of a ki transfusion ever working was between two identical twins. The ki has to be very similar or else the body rejects it. The technique I use only uses a little ki and even that would fail completely if the ki's paths weren't blocked. To attempt a full transfusion...not only would it probably fail, there's a good chance the donor would die... as well as anyone else in the room."

  Ranma looked down for a moment before he brightened... "Doc...a part of me is just like Nabiki ain't it? What if I change over to her, then the transfusion thingie should work right?"

  Tofu frowned " Hmm...maybe...but you don't have Nabiki's personality, you only have your _interpretation_ of Nabiki's personality...and we've already determined there's quite a lot that we don't know about her."

   "We gotta try right?" Ranma countered. Ranma concentrated for a moment, sweat pouring down his brow. He frowned. "DAMMIT! I can't change into her! Its gotta be on accident or something!" And then his eyes met Tofu's. "Doc...you ever think that maybe life is just a little TOO convenient?"

  Tofu just gave Ranma a look of incomprehension as the pigtailed boy ran to the counter by the other patient bed. Ranma picked up the earrings. The Saiserefu Noon. The artifact of Thyself Known. 

  Ranma touched the end of the hook of on of the earrings with his forefinger, drawing blood. "Aw crap. This is really gonna hurt." Closing his eyes, he pulled out the lobe of his right ear and stabbed it with an earring.

  It did hurt. And after the initial pain came a pins and needles sensation that spread throughout Ranma's body. He felt another pain in his left earlobe and another wave of pins and needles and, feeling with his left hand, he confirmed that the other earring had gone in quite on its own. Like a rush of wind, voices started a ruckus in his head. He recognized some...his father, Ukyo, Ryoga, Akane, others he didn't understand, others he knew all too well. It was almost too much. He would have passed out from the mere effort of making sense of it all, but he had a purpose. He focused. "I need to be Nabiki....Tendo Nabiki. I...Tendo Nabiki...I...need to....I...Nabiki...I...am...I am Tendo Nabiki!"

  Tendo Nabiki was very confused.

~~~~~*~~~~~

   "I thought you said all the phones were tapped?" Nodoka said on the other end.

   "They are, No-chan, but I think Nabiki already knows you know about me… I wish I could tell you where Ranma is…"

   "NO! There's still a chance. We can't lose hope!"

   "Nodoka…It's been more than a decade! And Ra-Ranko…she's hurting. And she's changing No-chan, and I don't like what she's changing into. She needs a mother. Not an aunt."

   "Genma…if I…adopt her, then she's going to know I know about you. Do you realize how that will make her feel?"

   "Betrayed, used…I know it will be hard, but I've gone through it before. It has to be better than this. Besides maybe this is just the push he…she needs."

   "You know we can't talk like that, Genma, it might break the contract!"

  Genma was silent for a long time before responding. "I'm…beginning to think we should just forget about the contract."

  Genma couldn't even hear Nodoka breathe in the pause before she spoke. "Genma…I understand how you feel, and I haven't seen what you've seen, so I'll forgive you just this once, but you even MENTION that possibility again…I love you Genny-kun…please… don't make me hate you." 

   "No-chan I…I love you too. Please consider it… Ran…ko can't take more of this. I can't take much more of this."

   "Genma…" There were tears in Nodoka's voice. In twenty-two years of marriage that was the first time Genma had ever said that he loved her. "I'll come…tomorrow. I'll stay for the weekend. You have to be the one to tell her though."

   "Alright. I hope…we can be a family again soon."

   "I hope so too, Genma. Until then,"

   "Until then." Genma hung up. He hated this. He hated doing this to his child. But it was something that had to be done. Just like the Nekoken, just like Jusenkyo. By the end of this weekend, Ranma would have to make a choice. Boy or girl, honor or love...

  Death or life. 

~~~~~[END]~~~~~

AN: The next chapter was originally going to be part of this one, but I generally like to keep my chapters close to twenty pages long and was going way past that limit. Anyway if it seems a little incomplete that's why.

Nabiki driving a motorcycle may be a little OOC but I just couldn't get the idea out of my head. It sprang from wondering why you never see any scenes in the anime of Nabiki walking to school and why she is so insistent on not walking with Ranma and Akane in the first episode. And of course Nabiki does have a "helmet" hairstyle...

Thanks go to Nemesis Zero, Aondehafka, and Figment for their helpful comments.

Any mistakes are mine alone.

Feedback greatly appreciated.

Zorukonotsu@yahoo.com 


	5. Firefly

Thyself Known

Ch.5: Firefly

By Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: Ranma1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and her cohorts. 

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE: Nabiki just had an accident while being chased by the cops. Apparently she used a ki blast to deflect t a flying motorcycle before it hit a woman and her infant husband. She used too much ki, and now she's ringing Death's doorbell. Ranma is trying to save her by putting on some pretty earrings and pretending to be Nabiki so that he give Nabiki a complete ki transfusion without it being rejected. Seems farfetched, but Ranma and Nabiki have more in common than one might suspect...

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

_"Boy,  
I've seen through all your schemes.  
Poor boy,  
You're just a bag of empty dreams.  
Oh boy,  
I've been nasty, you've been kind.  
You've sold your soul, but I still got mine  
And I got you covered."_

_-Biff Rose fr. I Got You Covered._

  "So I'm really Ranma, and in order to save my real self I have to participate in this ki transfusion?" Nabiki asked. It was kind of hard to take, but seeing herself on the table as a police officer tried to resuscitate her... and the red pigtail she was sporting complete with black T-shirt and Chinese pants did a lot to convince her. 

  "Yes, we don't have much time" Tofu said tersely.

  Nabiki nodded slowly. Whole swatches of her memory were gone. She knew for instance her mother was dead, but not how, or even what her name was. She knew she was Akane and Kasumi's sister, but she couldn't remember either of them younger than they were now. 

  Except Akane. She seemed to remember Akane at five or so, but the memory was indistinct. She thought of Ranma, of when she first saw him. Of all the times she helped him out...She never made it easy for him of course, but she respected him after a fact. Ranma had earned that respect. Nabiki had done a lot to harm Ranma too, but the boy survived it all and saved her little sister several times. Sometimes she had the feeling she respected Ranma more than anyone else in her family, which was odd because she didn't even really like him all that much. He was just fun to tease. All her respect amounted to was that she rarely bet against him and enlisted his aid upon occasion. Compared to what Akane did to him this morning though...

  A jolt passed through Nabiki. She wasn't sure what it was but she knew it was a memory. A memory of something terrible she did in the past that she tried desperately to forget...

  But if she was Ranma...Whose memory was it? How could she remember even what she did? How much of herself was real? Tofu said the other Nabiki had been driving a motorcycle after all and Nabiki couldn't remember even owning one... An image flashed in her mind of eyes. Sad, angry, dark eyes...It was from this morning, but she couldn't tell for a moment whether it was her eyes looking into Ranma's, or Ranma's looking into hers.

  Nabiki swallowed, "Okay...what do I have to do?"

  Tofu took Nabiki to a bed that he had moved right next to...the other Nabiki's bed so that they touched end to end. "Lay down here, your cosmic consciousness centers need to be close together." 

  Nabiki did as Doctor Tofu asked. If she looked up now, laying down, she could see the top of her own head. Thinking about it, it made sense. The crown chakra, located on the top of the head, was supposed to govern identity, of who a person is to themselves and the universe. Maybe that was what Tofu was talking about with the cosmic consciousness centers. Nabiki frowned. She should have known that already. She was a master yogi. 

  Nabiki mentally slapped herself. She was Ranma. Ranma had probably trained in yoga some time but then abandoned it for other things. And of course he knew about Nabiki because he had caught her in the dojo that one time, performing a difficult asana. But Nabiki couldn't imagine abandoning yoga. Couldn't imagine a life without meditation. 

  Or could she?

  Nabiki was perfectly willing to admit at this point that she was certifiably insane, but she was still Nabiki. She simply could not let go of that. And she would not. Not until this mess was cleared up anyway.

   "Okay now, reach up and touch Nabiki's temples with your fingers."

  Tofu could be so irritating at times...It was like he always said the wrong thing...on purpose. Letting it pass Nabiki closed her eyes, reached both hands up and after hitting ears and hairline she found the temples.

   "You can stop now, Kawagami-san. If this doesn't work...it won't matter." Tofu addressed the police officer. Who then reluctantly left the other Nabiki's side. "Okay...now I'm going to have to press a few pressure points to start the flow of ki. You will feel very disoriented for a bit, but you must not panic okay?"

   "I understand."

   "And, Ranma, if you're listening in there...I just want you to know that whatever happens...As far as I'm concerned this proves you are a man among men."

  Nabiki smirked, yes she was definitely going to have to clear Ranma's debts after he saved her life, but she was sure she could still find a way to milk him later. And of course since she really WAS Ranma, he must know it as well as her...Nabiki frowned. She hoped this would get settled soon. It was all just too strange. 

  Nabiki felt Tofu press a few spots on her arms and throat...and things started to get even stranger.

~~~~~*~~~~~

   "That irresponsible, inconsiderate, idiotic, no good, perverted JERK!" Akane slammed her fist down on her desk.

  It was lunchtime and Sayuri and Yuka were eating their lunches around Akane in the classroom. "What did he do this time?" Yuka asked politely while exchanging glances with Sayuri.

  It was an innocent question, but it was exactly what Akane had been trying to avoid all morning. What DID Ranma do? Why could she not spend five minutes with him without blowing up? "I don't know," she said in a small voice.

   "What?" Sayuri asked, surprised. "Come on he had to have done SOMETHING to get you this upset!"

   "It's nothing...or maybe it's everything. Damn it why isn't he HERE!" 

   "Okay Akane, just tell us what happened, maybe that will help you feel better." Yuka suggested, Sayuri nodding her on.

  Akane looked at her friends, "I'm sorry you guys, I know you have your own problems. It's not right for me to unload on you all the time."

   "Oh that's alright, Akane I don't mind." Yuka said.

   "Heh yeah," Sayuri smirked, "Besides your problems are MUCH more interesting."

   "That's right! Just yesterday I couldn't find my book bag and I was so stressed! And then I thought 'well at least I don't have an aquatransexual babe magnet for a boyfriend' and you know what? I felt SO much better!" Yuka agreed.

   "He is NOT my boyfriend."

   "Whatever!" Sayuri and Yuka said in chorus and then erupted into laughter.

  Akane couldn't help smiling. 

   "Behold!" Yuka said as she stood up and gestured to Akane's face, "Amateresu has come out of her cave! Let us rejoice!"

  Akane found herself giggling. "Yuka stop! You sound like Kuno!"

  Yuka pointed a finger at Akane in mock challenge. "You take that back right now, Tendo!" 

   "Akane, I think what Yuka is trying to say is 'Forsooth! Speakest thou not this slander, woman!'"

  They all started giggling at this. When they were through Akane sighed still smiling. "Thanks you guys...I needed a good laugh today."

  Sayuri gave a concerned look, "Yeah, no problem, Akane...so why were you so upset at Ranma?"

  Akane sighed. "It's not really him...Ranma's an idiot sometimes, but really he's nice enough when he wants to be."

   "Well than what is it?" Yuka asked. She had just finished her bento and now she folded her hand in front of her and sat up, her long brown hair framing a face of undivided attention. 

  Akane hated it when Yuka did that. "Its not him its...her."

   "What?" Sayuri asked around a bite of rice before swallowing it.

   "Ranma's girl side." Akane took a drink of her soda. "Before...it wasn't a big deal, but now his mother's been coming over more often... sometimes for whole weeks and...well...it frustrates me."

   "Is it just that he has to act like a girl?" Sayuri asked.

   "No...it's not that really..."

   "Is it how he treats his mother?" Yuka asked.

  Akane hesitated. "Th- that's part of it. But I understand that sort of. I mean...I would do almost anything to see Mom again...but I don't think I could actually kill myself. Sometimes I wonder though...anyway I don't think Auntie Saotome would make him do that, but Ranma's father does. Ranma's actually tried to tell his mother a few times and Uncle stopped him...Sometimes I forget how complicated it all is...Sometimes I wonder what I'd really do. I don't really blame Ranma for acting like a girl when his mother's around...but...it's just...he's too good at it!"

   "Honey, are you SURE he's not gay?" Sayuri asked, "I mean let's review here: he looks great, he doesn't respond well to come ons, he worries about his clothes, he can't stand a messy room AND he cross dresses...color me ignorant but that sounds like a fag to me." Sayuri counted the points of on her fingers as she sat with her legs crossed in a laid back slouch that somehow came off as attractive. Not that Akane would think she was attractive...

  Akane shook her head free of the thought. "I told you, Sayuri, he's not gay. We've had...moments."

   "Moments." Sayuri repeated.

   "Come on, I told you!"

   "All I remember is once he held your hand and a few times he ALMOST was going to kiss you. That hardly seems like clinching proof to me."

   "He said I had a cute smile..."

   "Akane," Sayuri patted Akane's hand, "lots of gay guys say things like that."

  Akane sighed, "I'm beginning to think maybe you're right."

   "Oh this is great!" Yuka laughed breaking out of her "proper" mode. "You two should start a gay boyfriend club, get shirts made up!"

   "Shut up, Yuka. Shiunji may have been gay, but he was much better boyfriend material than that slob you're into now, what's his name?  Haisetsubutsu?"

   "It's Haisei Tsubasa, and he's not a slob! He's...rugged." Yuka countered. "He's really smart too...he's just working as an auto mechanic now so he can get enough money for college."

   "He sounds like fine boyfriend material to me, Yuka." Akane assured.

   "Thank you, Akane," Yuka smiled proudly giving Sayuri a "there, you see?" look.

   "Hmph. Probably just a line he fed you to get into your pants..." Sayuri grumbled.

   "Sayuri! That wasn't very nice!" Akane admonished.

   "It's okay, Akane. She's just jealous is all." Yuka stuck her tongue out at Sayuri.

   "So Akane, you were saying about Ranma?" Sayuri said, pointedly changing the subject.

   "He just makes me so angry...This morning...he cooked breakfast, so Kasumi could have a break...which would have been fine, but he was so happy about it. His father said it was okay and he was smiling and singing and carrying on...As if he actually liked cooking."

   "Lots of men cook, Akane. Lots of women can't. That's not really anything to worry about." Yuka asserted as some of her stiffness returned.

  Akane sighed. "I wish you were there today, Yuka, I might not of blown up like I did..."

   "Um...Akane, honey...there's no stopping you when you blow up," Sayuri said, " You're like a typhoon, we all just have to board up the windows and hope for the best."

   "I'm not that bad am I?" Akane asked.

   "Yes," Yuka nodded, "Yes, you are."

  Akane looked at her friends' earnest faces and sighed. "I guess you're right. I went too far this time though."

   "What did you do?" Yuka asked.

   "I called him a 'girly girl' over and over. I even made up a haiku. And then later on, when he was acting like a cat I wouldn't pet him or even let him walk with me." Akane looked at her hands around the drink can sadly.

  Sayuri looked at Yuka. Yuka looked at Sayuri. Then the two girls burst into laughter.

   "It's not funny!" Akane protested.

   "Yes it is!" Sayuri laughed.

   "You bet! I wish I HAD been there...just to see the look on Ranma's face!" Yuka agreed. "What was the haiku? You HAVE to tell us."

   "Um it was...you're a girly girl, such a girly girly girl, even when you're male." Akane said smiling a little now.

   "That is SO inspired, Akane. You should be a poet!" Yuka quipped.

   "It's about time you did something about that freaky cat problem of his too." Sayuri added.

   "Okay, you guys, I see what you mean, but this is really serious! Ranma was really hurt by it!"

   "Oh come on, Akane, he can't have taken it serious! Besides, so you used a weakness against him, isn't that just like Anything Goes?" Sayuri asked.

   "All joking aside, Akane, Ranma does have some major problems," Yuka said, "On top of that, you have the whole fiancée thing hanging over your head...I think maybe what you really need is a break. Some time away from him to think things over. My family's going to the beach this weekend, maybe you could come too. Sayuri is coming of course. She practically lives with us as it is!"

   "Hey, there's nothing to do at my house!" 

   "Yeah yeah, my heart bleeds for you. Really." Yuka waved off Sayuri, "So what do you say, Akane? You want to come? You know my father deals with this stuff all the time anyway."

   "I don't need a shrink," Akane asserted.

   "Don't be silly," Yuka said, "EVERYBODY needs a shrink."

   "Heh, well...I'll think about it." Akane said.

   "Okay. Tomorrow's a half day, we leave right after school. Just let me know by then."

   "Come on Akane! It'll be fun! You probably won't even SEE Yuka's dodgy old dad." Sayuri pushed.

  A little girl came in with a satchel and set it on the desk. Everyone hurried to their desks.

   "Hinako-sensei's here, you guys... you're not going to tell anybody anything I said about Ranma are you?" Akane stage whispered.

   "Oh Akane, it's going to get out some time anyway," Yuka said, "You can't control rumor."

   "Yeah and there isn't anything to worry about." Sayuri added, "I mean, it's not like Ranma's Nabiki!"

  Akane swallowed, but said nothing.

  Just then a voice came over the school intercom. "Tendo Akane, please meet with the assistant principal in the main office...Tendo Akane, please meet with the assistant principal in the main office."

  Akane gathered her things, bowed to Hinako-sensei and left the class. She suddenly felt a sickening pang of guilt...like she had just stepped in a small puppy. As she walked, the feeling festered and mutated into a general feeling of impending doom. She hadn't told her friends the whole story. She hadn't really understood it all herself. Ranma was having trouble with his curse, and despite what her friends said, she knew deep down that she had messed up big time. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Tofu put down the receiver of the black radial telephone as Nabiki, the real Nabiki, walked unsteadily in the room. "I just finished phoning your father and your school. Your sister and the rest of your family should know the basics of what happened by now."

   "Tell me, Doctor...What exactly _are_ the basics of what happened?" Nabiki asked.

   "You got in a car accident...Ranma saved your life, and you are both now here at the clinic. Is that satisfactory?"

  Nabiki gave a small smile, "That's fine. I'm mostly still trying to get my bearings, but I appreciate your discretion. I suppose no one's come by about the bike?"

   "The bike?"

   "My motorcycle. I was driving a motorcycle. It's rather important to me. I'd ask about the woman and the baby, but I already talked with them in the other room." Nabiki paused as she recalled her conversation with them. "You have a lot of interesting cases, don't you Tofu-sensei?"

   "Yes...I've gained something of a reputation among my colleagues. They've started to send special cases to me."

   "So, you ought to be rich by the time you marry my sister huh?" Nabiki smirked, "You do plan on proposing soon, don't you?"

   "Yes, w-well, she s-s-says she w-wants to w-wait..." Tofu replied, pulling at his collar and smiling nervously.

  Nabiki frowned. "I'm going to have to talk to her it seems. All she told me this morning was that you guys didn't get back...till...late." Nabiki stopped herself and shook her head. When had she talked to Kasumi?

   "I'm a little surprised to see you up already." Tofu said, changing the subject. "How are you feeling?"

   "My arm aches a bit...and I could really use a change of clothes, but otherwise I'm fine...I think." Feeling the cold wetness in her underpants, Nabiki wished she could emphasize the need to change more without risking embarrassment.

   "Here," Tofu picked up a brown piece of clothing and handed it to Nabiki. "It's just some gi pants that got a shrunk a little in the wash. You may want to ask Happosai for a pair of panties though." Tofu smiled.

  This was precisely why Nabiki didn't want to have a serious relationship with the man. Sure he was a hunk and a doctor, but for that comment alone, Nabiki figured Kasumi could have him. 

   "Is there something else?" Tofu asked still smiling after Nabiki took the pants.

  Nabiki sighed. "I don't know whether this is important...but I thought it best to ask you. I'm seeing auras... all the time. I used to only be able to do that after an intense yoga session and only very faintly even then. Now...its very distinct."

  Tofu nodded slowly his smile disappearing. "Nabiki, you were clinically dead for a short while there...it's not unheard of to gain a greater psychic affinity after such a thing....but there's something else...isn't there."

  Nabiki nodded. "Sometimes...my thoughts are a little...unclear. It's like I'm thinking two things at once...I think I may have gotten some of Ranma's memories somehow...but everything is very vague, so I can't be sure if it's that or...something else."

  Now Tofu could be delivering a eulogy. "I'll have to do some tests. I won't lie to you, there's a good chance there was some...damage, but my guess is it's as you say. No one knows what the soul is exactly but we do know that ki has an awful lot to do with it. Most memories wouldn't be transferred. Ranma didn't download into you or anything. But certain key moments in his life that formed the facet of himself that was like you, some memories of things that you and he might have done similarly... as well as some things that are ingrained into his being..."

   "What sort of... things?"

   "It's hard to say. Off hand I wouldn't be surprised if you picked up some martial arts skill. That's something I saw in all of his personalities. You must remember, Nabiki, you came very close. Some parts of you may be lost entirely..."

  Nabiki took a breath, not bothering to hide her fear. 

  Tofu put his hand on her shoulder, "Or maybe nothing was lost. All I'm saying is that you can't take things for granted. Just be glad you're alive, and that no one else was hurt."         

  Nabiki looked up and gave Tofu a faint smile, "Thank you, Doctor. I don't like to be in debt to anyone, and you've already helped us out..."

  Tofu lowered his eyes and put a hand up, silencing Nabiki, "You owe me nothing. Your family... I owe more to your family than I can ever repay."

   "What are you talking about?"

  Tofu had a sad look on his face and for a moment he looked much older than his twenty-five years of age. He stared blankly at a wall and said, "The migration...some say it never ends..." Looking back to Nabiki he smiled softly, "Enjoy yourself, Nabiki. Things are going to get a lot worse."

   "Riiight," Nabiki said warily as she tried to make some sense out of what Tofu had just said, "I'm still a little groggy I think...Whatever the case, you may have a debt to the family, but there are personal debts too...All I'm saying is if there's anything I can do for you sometime, I'm your girl. And I won't make you buy me things beforehand, I swear."

   "Heh, I should hope not. My mother still talks about that little debacle." Tofu seemed to go to a far away place again for awhile but he snapped back to reality with a smile. "Get some rest. Don't try to leave though...there's a young police officer who's very keen on arresting you for some reason."

   "I think I can handle him." Nabiki smiled mischievously. "I'll wait till my family gets here though. Oh...one other thing...a friend of mine, Tomo Hoko is feeling ill. Her mother is worried about her. It's probably nothing serious, but if you get a chance you might call her."

   "I will. Thank you, Nabiki."

  Nabiki nodded and left Tofu's office, feeling a little better now. Actually she felt a lot better, refreshed almost. It was as if by surviving that crash she had passed some sort of test and now everything was going to be okay. 

  She went to the bathroom and changed out of her short shorts and underwear and into the worn out brown pants. She still wore her uniform dress. Looking in the mirror the pants under the dress looked almost stylish. Almost.

  She had to talk to Ranma. She had to find out somehow just how much her was different. And why Ranma was able to act so much like her that even her own body couldn't tell the difference. Suddenly Nabiki remembered that moment earlier that morning when they had locked eyes, and instead of thinking of the gun...there was something else...

  A feeling of intense rage, of injustice, of animal bloodlust. Poised over a fallen man in a dingy white gi and deep red gashes in his side, five seconds away from separating the head from the body and perhaps sucking the blood for the protein. Knowing that all that needed to be done was stand up, regain humanity, but not being able to. A young child...far away but close enough to hear with heightened senses. Words of accusation, raised with a small arm and index finger to an older man. "That's him! That's the man who stole my kitty!" And suddenly the only thought is "Not in front of the child." Because childhood is suddenly something just as small and far away. And then tears, and running no... bounding away. On all fours for hours, in the cold, bleeding naked from so many small cuts and scrapes. Finally collapsing in the arms of an elderly woman. Hoping that somehow what was done could be undone, that childhood could be restored, that all that happened could have happened to someone else, something else, and slowly... finding the strength to forget.

  Nabiki's eyes went wide and she staggered back at the sudden vivid vision. She knew it was Ranma's memory. It had to be. But it happened to her all the same. 

  Ranma had demons just as nasty, maybe even nastier than her own, and unlike her, he kept them tightly locked away for years. Nabiki felt the darkness, the cold darkness, and she knew what it wanted. 

  It wanted revenge. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Shampoo woke up in the grassy bank of the canal. For a few moments she didn't know why she was there. And then she remembered.

  It was the Nekoken. 

  Shampoo had learned Ranma's ultimate secret technique, the technique that even her great grandmother could not defeat. She was now, in effect, the strongest warrior not just of her generation, but of the entire village. She wouldn't be jumping for glee anytime soon, though. 

  Something stank about it all. It reeked of Cologne. She had egged Shampoo on when she went after Ranma. When she had come back, she was the one who had cursed her. All through the time in Nerima, Cologne humored Shampoo in her endeavors with Ranma, but anything she suggested always ended up failing miserably. Furthermore all that time she was sticking Ranma in his girl form, training him, helping learn new techniques, as if Ranma was her newest acolyte, as if Ranma was a female warrior. Shampoo's earlier assessment -- that Cologne was trying to make Ranma female -- had had one major flaw: why bring Shampoo at all if that's what she wanted? 

  Now Shampoo knew. Cologne was at the tournament, she would have seen just as easily as Shampoo could now that Ranma knew the Nekoken. The fluidity with which he moved, the sensitivity of his senses, it was obvious for anyone who knew the signs. Cologne must have read the text concerning the technique and found a loophole, a way around the strict rules against teaching it, as well as a way to make it work for some one who wasn't a child.

  Cologne must have known what the cat spring would do to Shampoo. She would have known that Shampoo would be attracted to the cat within Ranma. That eventually Shampoo would either have to force Ranma to have sex with her or have sex with another man. Ranma would then either be forced to accept the marriage or he would completely free of it, which would make him that much more likely to be lured in with Cologne's Amazon techniques. 

  Shampoo stopped herself. It all seemed unbelievable. But why else was the elder here? Just to make a mockery of herself and Shampoo, failing every attempt to bring back Shampoo's husband? The old hag was many things, but she was not a baffoon. And unlike Shampoo, she had experience. She had to know what she was doing. 

  Shampoo had to accept it. Either everything from getting the curse on had been meticulously planned out by Cologne, or the elder was a terribly strict and paradoxically intelligent idiot. The first one appealed to cold logic, while second seemed ridiculous.

  Cologne had planned it all.

   If Cologne's plan had worked, it would have been perfect for her. She would return with two female warriors trained in the Nekoken with one, maybe even both, pregnant with strong children for the village. She'd be set for the rest of her old life.

  And who knows, if it had worked maybe Shampoo would have been happy. 

  But it hadn't. Ranma's curse changed somehow. And Shampoo knew now why she hadn't been able to move on and forget Ranma after getting cursed as punishment. She knew why her infatuation had grown, mutated, festered into an obsession. It was lust. Animal lust. 

  Shampoo shook her head. She loved Ranma. Whatever the cause, she knew in her heart that was true. 

  The cause WAS important though. Ranma was at least partially a cat. That was why she had wanted him initially. Even now she wanted him like that. To come to her, claws outstretched...eyes glowing blue against the backlight. She needed it like the worst drug imaginable...  

  And that was why she could never be with him. Not now that she knew. She spent too long resisting those urges to succumb to them now. And if she did she'd be doing exactly what Cologne wanted her to do. And she never wanted to do anything for that hag ever again.

  But she couldn't get away. She was an Amazon and as an Amazon she was bound to Ranma until either he or Shampoo died. As an Amazon she had to respect her elder, and follow her orders. As an Amazon she had to keep working at the cat café alongside a man that made her sick for as long as Cologne deemed it necessary.

  It was all a lie. All the pride she had was unfounded. All the respect she had gained an illusion to mollify her and mold her into what the elders deemed worthy. All that Shampoo had ever wanted was respect. But respect was just the carrot used to entice her forward. To make her travel across China and into Japan to kill the person she was growing to respect herself. She could have killed Ranma. She came so close, but she was not a killer.  There were times on the road beaten by monsoon weather and grueling hikes through unkempt trails that she had wanted to stop, even join the red-head and her panda by the fire. But she could not. Because of the Amazon law. When she got to Japan and Ranma lied to her and said he was a girl, something that happened all the time with Jusenkyo curses...Shampoo could have stayed. Could have tried to be friends, but she could not. Because of the Amazon law. There was no middle ground. She had to either be a wife or a killer, and since Ranma didn't want either she had to go back. Cologne cursed her, they went back to Japan but things just kept getting worse and worse.

  Cologne had stopped teaching Shampoo new techniques after she had helped Ranma get the Phoenix pill. It was punishment for her rebellion against an elder. Just as the cat curse was a punishment for Shampoo's inability to kill or capture Ranma. But it wasn't just punishment. Shampoo knew now. Cologne _knew Shampoo would help Ranma. She __knew Ranma would use the Nekoken and would have to ask for Shampoo's aid. And right after Ranma used the Nekoken, she gave him the Phoenix pill. Shampoo's marriage was only a diversion to the woman. She wanted the Nekoken. _

  The energy that Shampoo felt as she dug her claws into Ranma's back and the red-head became a cat...it was so powerful, so intoxicating... That was the beginning of the end it so many ways. A part of Shampoo had always suspected Cologne was using her, but she was an elder, and to disobey an elder was one of the highest crimes of the Amazons.

  Maybe Shampoo was oversimplifying. Maybe she was half-crazed from almost being raped by someone she loved because they had the mind of a feline. But it seemed so clear now. All this time she had taken such pride in being an Amazon, but it was being an Amazon that kept her from all the things she ever wanted.

  Shampoo suddenly felt sick. She wanted desperately to find some reason, any reason to believe what she was taught all her life. She tried to think of the good things, the training, the knowledge, the friends, but she never had any friends, Japan had so many more opportunities for learning, and she could train just as well in Japan maybe even better with out Cologne forcing her to make deliveries. There was Lin Lin and Ran Ran...but when was the last time she talked to them? Then there was Mousse, blind dumb, angry, Mousse. Why was he around in the first place?

  Redundancy. As much as she avoided it, if she had gotten desperate enough she would have gone to Mousse, who at least would stick around afterwards, who she at least knew. Shampoo fought back bile at the thought. That would be Hell. Still, even if Mousse was a back up stag, Shampoo would miss him. There were times when he wasn't so bad and in a way he was like an extremely annoying kid brother...

  Shampoo took a shuddering breath as she realized that she had already made her decision.

   "Today," Shampoo swore to the horizon, "Shampoo...no longer Amazon." She reached to her side, to the small dagger she always kept there. She took a fist of her hair, held it over her head, and swiped through it. She threw the hair to the ground. It fell in a heap of shining purple like some beautiful creature now dead. Shampoo stared at it for a moment, and then threw her knife into it so that it quivered, stuck in the ground. "Bie Liao, Great Grandmother," She sneered and headed off to enact a plan still forming in her head.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Kuonji Ukyo sat in Hinako-sensei's English class looking out the window and thinking. Hinako was coloring in a Walt-Disney book, and eating pocky, while most of the students diligently contemplated their American comic books. Any learning that went on in the class was purely accidental.

  Ukyo was tired and depressed.

  Ranma wasn't there today. She had seen Akane talking to her friends. She seemed upset about something. Ukyo halfway considered asking the girl what it was, but she didn't really feel like having the inevitable battle that would ensue. Just before class she was called to the office. Ukyo hoped she wouldn't return for some time.

  She had only four hours of sleep, if that. She had spent a large part of her time in bed tossing and turning and trying to find out some way she could get Ranma to look at her as more than a friend...with out risking losing him as a friend. The truth of the matter was that she was woefully unprepared for love in her life right now. For half her life she lived as a boy. Planning her revenge, preparing her mind and body for her next meeting with Ranma and his father. Then all of a sudden...pow, love. He called her cute. He was still the same little boy she played with so long ago, and not at all the demon she imagined. 

  This was nothing new now of course. Still, she was clueless as to what to do. Before coming to Nerima the protocol as she understood it was to ask somebody out, see if you liked them and go on from there. But Ukyo already KNEW she liked Ranma and, being his fiancée already, she was in the two most awkward moments in a relationship at the same time. She was at her wits end, trying anything that came to mind. She found herself following Akane's and Shampoo's lead, alternatively hanging on Ranma and beating him up. It wasn't what she wanted. 

  All she wanted was what they had before...everything went wrong. She wanted to spar with him in the dojo every morning before he taught a class and then fire up the grill so the students wouldn't leave hungry. And then maybe Ranma would help her serve people in the restaurant after teaching. Maybe they'd challenge each other on who could cook the best and fastest okonomiyaki, and of course Ranma would be faster, but Ukyou's would be better and no one would really be able to decide. And they'd smile and kiss and say playfully "I'll beat you next time!" 

  Sometimes Ukyo envisioned whole days of married life with Ranma, sometimes she thought of what she'd name the children, of what they would teach them. Sometimes she imagined old friends visiting. Sometimes she envisioned new adventures side by side with Ranma against terrible odds. Sometimes...sometimes she just thought of the glorious sex.

  But never in any of these visions did Ukyo ever figure out HOW to get there. Even without the other fiancées it would be difficult, but with them...

  The thing Ukyo kept coming back to was that she should be patient. That she should just try to be the best friend she could be, and then things might just progress naturally. But it was so hard. Ukyo was so worried that if she didn't do something, she would end up with nothing. That time was running out...That things weren't falling into place, but falling apart. She hated what all this was doing to Ranma. She hated what it was doing to her. But she couldn't see anyway around it. Not if she wanted any chance of being with the man she loved.

  In short, Ukyo was tired and depressed.

  Looking out of the window forlornly as she was, Ukyo was the first to see Shampoo running toward the school, sporting an awful haircut. She still was rather surprised however when Shampoo jumped through the window and the wall and into the classroom. Then she remembered. "Oh. It's Shampoo. I forgot."

   "How does she do that!" A student asked as the dust settled.

   "Yeah! This is the third floor!" remarked another.

   "UKYO!" Shampoo yelled pointing a bonbori at the girl in boy's clothing. "You rival, yes? You fight now, yes?"

  Ukyo wasn't sure what surprised her more, that Shampoo was picking a fight with her, apparently for the hell of it, or that she actually said her name and not "spatula girl" or "boy-girl" or "finger licker"

   "Hey!" Ukyo said finally, "you actually said my name!"

   "DELINQUENTS!" a figure rose from behind the rubble. Her eyes shown with the manic glare of one too many candy bars. The silhouette quivered with the petulance of all the terrible two's condensed and trapped in the body of a ten-year-old. "HAPPO GO-EN SA-"

  Ukyo ran for the opening that Shampoo had made and made a break for it. The jump wasn't anything for a roof hopper like herself. And while she didn't feel like fighting, a fight sounded a whole lot better than having her chi sucked out of her. 

  She landed and kept running toward the baseball field. Looking behind her, she confirmed that Shampoo had followed her out of the school. "What do you want?" Ukyo yelled back at the purple-headed crazy girl.

   "First we fight, then we talk!" Shampoo yelled. "Is important. Find more secret place for fight yes?"

  Ukyo slowed down to an even trot sensing she was no longer in any immediate danger. Shampoo caught up to her quickly. "We'll go to that abandoned lot by the canal okay?"

  Shampoo nodded. "Is good."

   "What happened to your hair, Sugar? Did you get in a fight with Ryoga?"

  Shampoo shook her head. "Pig boy no get close if try."

  Ukyo nodded. Ryoga's bandannas were easy enough to dodge, usually. Even if he did get over the "don't hit girls" shtick that he had worse than even Ranma. "Is this about Ranchan?" Ukyo asked as she ran at a steady pace beside the other girl. 

  Shampoo said nothing for a good minute, and then at the bend in the road right before the lot she said, "Is about Ranma, and no is about Ranma. Shampoo need to think. Need to fight too."

  Another bit of strangeness: Shampoo said "Ranma" and not "Airen." Ukyo had the distinct impression that once again, something major had happened and she was the last to know. "Why can't you just tell, me what's going on, Shampoo? You better not be trying some kind of 'kiss of death' crap on me." 

   "No kiss. Is fight between womans, not Amazon and outsider." Shampoo assured and jumped over the chain link fence surrounding the lot.

  Ukyo followed and made a cursory glance to get a hold on her situation. The lot was fairly typical. The grass was long, colored a dusty light brown-green, and fell on the ground in wispy tufts. There were some large stones in the ground and of course that meant pebbles. Looking down, Ukyo found that the ground still had some muddy patches from the rain yesterday. 

  Ukyo smiled. This was going to be fun.

   "We here," Shampoo declared, "Now we fight." She leaped into the air holding her twin bonbori wide while keeping a knee up to guard her torso. Ukyo watched her until she reached the height of her jump. Shampoo made herself into a ball bringing the bonbori to her chest and started a forward summersault. Ukyo stepped back a few steps.

  Shampoo spun faster, bringing the heads of her bonbori crashing down on the head of her opponent...only her opponent wasn't there. Ukyo jumped, using Shampoos neck as a springboard and twisted in the air tossing some twenty spatula shuriken at purple-haired girl.

  Shampoo had already turned around and dodged and batted away the spatulas easily then ran and jumped for a flying sidekick, hoping to catch Ukyo in the solar plexus. "Why you insult Shampoo with dumb spatula attack?" She yelled in midair.

  Ukyo took her giant spatula and slammed it down on Shampoo's foot, sending the Chinese girl into a tumble. Ukyo then let the momentum send the spatula down to the ground where it stuck in the mud, almost halfway up the flat section. "That's why," Ukyo explained simply.

  Shampoo rolled into the fall and was back on her feet right away, still holding her bonbori. Ukyo could see that Shampoo now favored her left foot, but she knew it wasn't a major injury. Shampoo nodded comprehension. The spatula-shuriken were mainly a diversionary tactic used to allow Ukyo to grab her larger weapon. Although there was always the chance Ukyo'd get lucky.

  Shampoo began to advance again...

  Ukyo focused. She gripped the handle of the giant spatula tightly feeling its nature, making it one with her body. She cleared her mind of all thought. There was only Okonomiyaki, and the customer she was to serve...

  Shampoo ran towards Ukyo, but her motion seemed much slower now. Ukyo sent her ki through the spatula into the soft muddy ground. First there was the batter...it must be the correct consistency or the Okonomiyaki would come out flawed. Ukyo coaxed the mud into being softer, more cohesive. more clay-like...

  Shampoo stepped into a spin, most likely a kick followed by a swing of the bonbori, Ukyo surmised. The customer would want something hard and constricting. Ukyo hefted the spatula and the mud stuck like taffy to its end. Just as the hook kick passed through the air Ukyo's head occupied only moments before, Ukyo brought the taffy-like mud in an arc, covering Shampoos arms, torso and upper thigh. Just as it made contact the mud hardened into rock. Shampoo spun crazily and fell down rather jarringly.

  Another satisfied customer. 

  Ukyo smiled. She had been practicing with mud as a combat batter for some time now. That was the first time she was ever able to use it against an opponent in combat though. She still preferred real Okonomiyaki batter, but one point Ranma had driven home time and time again was the need for adaptability. Still, she had thought Shampoo would last longer than that.

   "Ow!" Shampoo exclaimed, "How Ukyo do that?"

   "I trained for years battling the waves of the ocean. I can deflect or attract anything that has water in it, as long as I use my spatula, and I concentrate deeply enough."

  Shampoo nodded sadly. "Ukyo win this time. Is only because Shampoo not train serious for too too long. Shampoo COULD beat..."

   "Here, Sugar, I'll let you out of there." Ukyo concentrated and tapped the mass of rock around Shampoo with her spatula. The rock crumbled away from the Chinese girl. Shampoo sat up and rubbed her ankle pensively. "Now what is all this about? I thought you trained all the time with your great grandmother?"

  Shampoo snapped her eyes to Ukyo, and for a second, Ukyo wondered if Shampoo was going to attack again. Then Shampoo lowered her eyes to the ground. "Old Ghoul not train Shampoo. Only train Ranma and Pig Boy. Tell Shampoo 'clean restaurant', 'make delivery' Tell Shampoo is punishment. Shampoo obey because is Elder and relative. Shampoo fool. Shampoo train herself in off times, but no is enough."

  A growing excitement filled Ukyo. Maybe she had more of a chance with Ranma! If Shampoo was this weak...

   "Shampoo see Ukyo think of Ranma now. Is good. Shampoo like Ukyo more than violent girl. Ukyo be best match yes?"

  And now Ukyo was confused. "Is this some trick of yours? You trying to make me go against Akane maybe?"

  Shampoo shook her head. Ukyo had never seen the girl so down. "Shampoo have big problem with Ranma. Sha-...I...can't love him. No can be Airen."

   "I don't understand...I thought your rules said you had to be..."

  Shampoo stood up. "I break rules! Shampoo no longer Amazon. Shampoo lied to all life, just find out. Need to fight to see if true what Sh...I think. I need help. I need training. I need learn Japanese more better. I need job... I need new life."

   Ukyo couldn't believe what she was hearing! This changed everything! She had a chance now! But Ukyo couldn't be completely happy. It was true she'd drop Shampoo in a heartbeat if it meant she could be with Ranma, but now that she was out of the picture...Shampoo and she had always had an uneasy friendship of sorts. And now...there was still Akane to deal with, but it was as if Shampoo practically handed her Ranma! Before she even realized it, she found herself hugging the former Amazon tightly. "Don't worry, Sugar. This will work out."

  Shampoo stiffened, but gradually she returned the hug. "It long time...You very much like mans sometimes, but you strong warrior."

  Ukyo released Shampoo. Ukyo was shocked to see moisture on the girl's cheeks. This was serious shit she was getting herself into. "Shampoo, honey, I'm going to help you, but I need to know why you're doing this. I mean for all I know you could be under some charm or something..."

  Shampoo wiped her tears away quickly and swallowed. "Old ghoul train, but not in way Shampoo think. Shampoo curse very bad. Have very much trouble during...blood time..."

   "Oh gods!" Ukyo had never put it together...cats go into heat! That would be terrible! 

  Shampoo nodded, "Many cats come. I fight off. Night after night." 

   "But...why don't you just use some of that waterproof soap of yours?"

   "Is very rare and expensive." 

   "Yeah, but wouldn't Cologne want to keep something like that from happening to you? She could find a way to get it."

  Shampoo gritted her teeth. "Hag no care. Something happen she say is punishment. She here for Ranma."

   "What do you mean, sugar?"

   "She want Ranma as Amazon. Make good babies." Shampoo's hands were shaking fists, her knuckles bone white. "Today Ranma become like cat. Just like other cats. He try to..." Shampoo shuddered. 

  Ukyo got the picture. "What did you do?"

   "Shampoo fight off...just like other cats. Shampoo become like cat to fight off... Old ghoul find way to teach Nekoken."

  And here Ukyo was starting to think of Cologne as a nice old lady who knew martial arts. She must have chosen the spring Shampoo fell into. She must have planned the whole thing! And to her own great granddaughter no less! "So that's why you're not an Amazon anymore." 

  Shampoo nodded. 

  Ukyo's eyes drifted to Shampoo's hair. It hung ragged along the nape of the neck. Shampoo's long bangs on either side of her face still there. It looked terrible, like someone had just hacked through it with a knife...It all made dreadful sense now. Except for one thing... "What would you have done if you beat me?"

  Shampoo made eye contact for a moment and then stared off into the distance. "I need to train. You strongest womans here I know. I hear battle with Ranma much longer than Shampoo's. No believe it before, now do. If I beat you, I probably go to someone else. Need to know level. Need to find good training partner. But even if beat, I still ask for help. You have restaurant, no delivery. I want see Cat Café go bye bye."

  Ukyo shared an evil smile with her new ally. This was getting better and better. "What do you plan on doing about Cologne?"

   "First train. Train hard."

   "Yeah, and then what, Sugar?"

  Shampoo clenched her fists again. Her eyes looked dead and risen...filled with cold darkness. 

   "After training," Shampoo said, "I kill."

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Nabiki found Ranma in the waiting room talking to the Yamashitas about their peculiar predicament. He was male and he sprawled languidly on the couch like seats as he talked to the woman in the plain brown kimono and her baby/husband. 

  She studied them for awhile from the doorway, marveling at how their auras shown now. Ranma's was a deep aqua blue...Mrs. Yamashita was a warm yet orderly brown. Her baby/husband glowed a dark orange.  As distinct as the auras were, Nabiki could still see things through them without difficulty. The colors were really more of a suggestion than a reality. Nabiki returned her gaze to Ranma. Notably absent were the butterfly earrings he was supposed to be wearing...the Thyself Known? Nabiki winced mentally. Another Ranma memory. They were supposed to keep Ranma from going crazy or something.

  At first it seemed to be the same old Ranma, his trademark awkward casualness readily apparent. But then he started talking...

   "So, you're telling me there's an honest to goodness fountain of youth in a cave somewhere here in Japan?" Ranma's grammar was definitely better.

   "Yeth." The baby in the woman's arms nodded, "Ith in Hokaido actually. I had to dig thlough a hot thpling to find it. Got a little too much on me. Doctol Tofu theemth to think he can acthelelate my ag'ing, but ith going to be difficult." Mr. Yamashita, having no teeth and a somewhat underdeveloped tongue, had a lisp that was more of a gurgling wet sound and a ridiculously high voice. You could try not to laugh, but it was best to get it over with early on rather than let it burst out all at once. Nabiki had talked with the man before, but she still had to smile a bit.

   "But what's stopping other people from falling in?" Ranma asked.

   "My men blew it up aftel I...tlang'ed...got youngel I mean. I would have liked to thtudy it mole but I didn't have muth thay in the mattel." The baby grimaced.

   "Come now, Ichiro, we wouldn't want that sort of thing to get to the public would we?" Mrs. Yamashita chided.

   "Thtop patlonithing me woman! Jutht because I look like a baby doethn't mean you can tleat me like one!"

   "Oh" Mrs. Yamashita said matter of factly, "I suppose you can feed yourself from now on then?"

   "Thatth not what I meant!"

   "Ahem." Nabiki interrupted, smirking from the doorway.

   "Hey, Firefly!" Ranma called, "It's good to see you up!"

  Nabiki stiffened. She hadn't been called that for more than a decade... "Ranchan...we need to...talk." The weirdness level just refused to go down. Nabiki hadn't intended to say "Ranchan" it just...came out. She saw Ranma stiffen in much the same way she had. 

   "Right." Ranma swallowed. 

  Mrs. Yamashita got up without further provocation and bowed to them both, "I'm glad to see you're both well. I will see if Tofu sensei is ready for us."

   "Thank you Yamashita-san" Ranma and Nabiki said at the same time. 

  When the Yamashita's were gone, Nabiki waited a minute, and then asked, "The log of 'a' plus the log of 'b' equals what?"

   "The log of 'a' times 'b?'" Ranma answered.

   "That is SO unfair." Nabiki commented.

  Ranma responded by throwing a punch to Nabiki's midsection...which she easily dodged. "No...THAT is unfair." Ranma countered.

  Nabiki sighed. She supposed she'd have to concede the point. Ten years of intense training and she got most of it in about an hour. 

   "This is too damn weird." Ranma said.

  Nabiki nodded. "I think we need to figure out exactly how much we know about each other, before we both go nuts."

   "Um...I know about the gun." 

   "Yes...and I know you almost killed your father."

   "What? What are you talking about? I never..." Nabiki saw Ranma's aura darken and could see he was reliving the whole thing in his mind. Ranma's fists clenched. "Damn. SHIT!"

   "Calm down. You didn't kill him did you? You're not a murderer. So you're not going to kill my little sister either."

  Ranma looked at the ground for a bit, with crazed eyes. "I still want to. I can't get it out of my head. I want to wring her neck...tear her to pieces..."

   "It doesn't look like the relationship is working out all that well," Nabiki noted

   "Heh, yeah you could say that." Ranma leaned back, sighing. "I just wish I could stop thinking about her."

   "Freudian slip there, Ranchan?"

   "Yeah, I think I know what you mean. I kind of love her, and I kind of hate her at the same time." Ranma said.

  Nabiki blinked. Ranma said he loved Akane! But the way he said it...it wasn't the kind of love that you marry someone over. "I know how you feel, believe me." Nabiki sat down on the sofa.

   "I believe it." Ranma said sitting down himself.  "How did you get over it?"

   "I got even."

   "What do you mean?"

  Before Nabiki knew it she answered him. "Any time I felt like killing someone I took a piece of paper and listed all the things they did to me, and I figured out ways to get them back. The trick is planning. The more planning you do the better you feel afterwards, no matter what it is you actually do to the person."

   "I'll have to try that." Ranma smiled mischievously. "How did you get even with Akane?"

  Nabiki thinned her lips. "The gun pretty much did it for me. She was scared to go near me for months. I got some satisfaction from that I have to say. Still, it mostly just made me feel so lousy..."

   "Right." Ranma smiled slightly, "My vote's for plan B"

   "Speaking of psychotic behavior...aren't you supposed to be wearing those earrings?"

  Ranma's hand went to his ear reflexively. "I don't know. They just fell out when I woke up. I think I'm actually less screwed up than I was this morning, believe it or not. Maybe I don't need them any more. I got them in my pocket though, just in case."

   "Have you tried just wearing them around your neck or something? Do they have to be in your ear?"

  Ranma shook his head, "I haven't tried, but I don't think that will work. I think they need to be in contact with my blood or something...Besides it's not that big a deal. I've got this weird memory of going to the mall by myself to get my ears pierced...missing my mother."

  Nabiki recalled the moment just as Ranma mentioned it. Juxtaposed with it was a scene of a tournament, of Genma yelling at her after she lost a battle and not having anyone say it was okay... "What do you remember about your mother?" She said suddenly. It had been in the back of her mind since he had called her Firefly.   
   "You mean growing up? Not much. Just recently I remember she used to call me Ranchan, just like Ukyo and well, just like you did a little while ago. I think I thought my name actually WAS Ranchan at one time. I don't know...its all foggy. Is it the same with you and Firefly?"

   "Y-yes..."

   "It suits you, you know. When I tried to punch you just now, your aura flared up...it was bright green. Not like Ryoga's puke green. It's like you're sad and happy all at the same time."

   "Well that's more or less how I feel most of the time I suppose. Once you accept the fact that the world isn't going to give you exactly what you want, you can start to have fun with it." Nabiki scratched her temple and sighed. "My mother...she used to call me that. Firefly."

   "Why?" 

   "Well, there was this one night...It was in the summer and Mom and I were watching the fireflies from the porch. Akane was just a baby then. Kasumi was at a friend's house...it was just me and Mom." Nabiki glanced at Ranma. Why did she trust him so much?

   "So what happened?" Ranma asked.

  Nabiki shook her head free of the weirdness and continued her story. "We turned all the lights off in the house and we just watched the fireflies blinking on and off randomly. I remember I caught one and showed it to her. She wanted me to release it, but I didn't want to. I wanted to keep it forever. Then she said she could get a jar and I could put as many as I could catch in it and keep it in my room. I was so excited, but then she raised her finger and said 'But if you put them in a jar, they'll die by the next day, and you won't ever see them again.'

   "I was maybe three at the time, I couldn't have known what she was talking about. But somehow I understood what she said and I let the firefly go. She hugged me then and asked why I wanted to keep the firefly. 'Because it glows pretty' I said or something similar. 

   "'And you'd like to glow pretty too wouldn't you?' she asked. I giggled and said yes. She went inside the house and came out with a flashlight. 'I bet with this you'll be the prettiest little firefly there is.' she said. And she told me to try talking to them and had me run out among them with the flashlight flicking it on and off at them. 

   "I was pretty sure Mom was joking and I got tired of it pretty quick. I sat down on the step next to mom just thinking about fireflies and if maybe I should get a jar after all. I was flicking the flashlight on and off out of boredom for awhile and then my Mom says 'LOOK!' I didn't see anything. I turned the flashlight on to see what she was talking about and I swear every single firefly glowed. I turned off the flashlight to see them better and they stopped. 

   "I kept turning the flashlight on and off and the kept glowing with the flashlight for almost five minutes before I tried leaving the light on and they went back to their own rhythms. It was like they were dancing with me or something...I don't know to this day whether I actually made them blink like that or if it was some odd fluke. I was never able to make it happen again."

   "Wow. So maybe you WERE talking to them huh?" Ranma enthused.

   "Sometimes I like to think I was," Nabiki said still halfway in another time in place. "Other times I like to think that it was just something beautiful that happened for no reason. Either way I never forgot it. Sometimes I think some part of me is still shining flashlights at the fireflies, trying to get them to dance."

  They were both silent for awhile. Nabiki couldn't believe she had just told all of that...to Ranma! But he had already been in her head. He had already gone through all her defenses. And...it felt good. 

   "Nabiki?" Ranma's deep blue eyes asked her.

   "What is it, Ranma?" Nabiki breathed.

And suddenly she and Ranma were kissing. Nabiki was kissing Saotome Ranma!

  Her arms drifted up and down Ranma's back over the hard muscles under the silk Chinese shirt. Ranma's hands slid up her thigh, found her rear and squeezed. Nabiki moaned, breaking there kiss...Then suddenly her eyes went wide. She pushed Ranma away and sat slumped in her seat, her face flushed. "This can't be happening..." she muttered.

   "Nabiki, I've never felt like this for anyone before. I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me..."

  And suddenly Nabiki and Ranma were kissing again. Their tongues were battling each other...their hands went all over each others bodies. Soon Nabiki was on top of Ranma on the couch, her hands unconsciously trying to take the black t-shirt off of Ranma...

   "Ahem."

  Nabiki jumped off Ranma and looked up, startled at the man standing above them.

  It was Officer 542, aka Kawagami Hiro. 

   "Ma'am, this is a public place. Please show some decorum." Officer Kawagami said coldly. He shoved some papers under Nabiki's nose. "You owe the city of Tokyo 55,682,842 yen. Your driver's license is revoked until the hearing which will be in three weeks. Have a nice day." 

  Nabiki took the papers dumbly and Kawagami turned around and left the room. His aura betrayed his crisp manner though. Nabiki wondered how someone she didn't even know all that well could be so jealous of her.

  Nabiki looked at the papers. "This is not good." She was guilty of everything on the paper. The fine would put the Tendo family back in the red...and it was all her fault!

  Ranma's arm went around her shoulder. "You don't have to worry, Firefly, you've got me working for you now." 

  Nabiki nodded. She didn't completely like this feeling of not being in control, but there was something nice about it. Comforting. She leaned into Ranma, grabbing his hand with hers. "I don't know how this is going to turn out, Ranchan. Something tells me this isn't going to last...but right now I don't care. Just...if you're going to go insane again could you give me a few days?"

  Ranma was silent for a while. "Nabiki, it's not over... Tofu called it a migration and at first I laughed at him...but now...I can feel it more. It's like I'm not in the right place within myself, like things are shifting into place. But I know right now that at least this part of me wants to be with you. And that isn't going to change."

  Nabiki almost started kissing Ranma again. But she turned her head back away before it happened. "Still...we need to take things slow. If something unforeseen happens we might need to stop..."

   "So, casual sex is out of the question?" Ranma quipped.

  Nabiki smirked. "Now I KNOW that was me just then. There is no way you could have ever put 'sex' and 'casual' in the same sentence before."

   "You'd be surprised..." Ranma said looking away.

  Nabiki nudged Ranma in the ribs. "You're being enigmatic, stop it!"

  Ranma turned and smiled tiredly at Nabiki. "I tried to seduce doctor Tofu."

   "Oh...you too huh? That man is one sexy bastard."

  Ranma hugged Nabiki closer. "Heh one thing for sure, I'm definitely moving the engagement to you. I know neither of us wants an engagement, but I think we can keep our fathers from doing anything too stupid. Much better than I could with Akane anyway."

   "Okay, Ranma, but just for the record, I don't like it, and if this is some kind of spell and we both wake up, you're going to owe me big time..." Nabiki smiled, "I just thought of something."

   "What?"

   "Moving the engagement to me would be the perfect revenge to have on Akane."

  Ranma slapped his fist against the palm of his other hand. "That's right! The bitch'll blow a gasket! And if she thinks I'll let her hit me with a mallet when I'm not even engaged to her..."

  Nabiki put a finger to Ranma's mouth. "Down, boy. Remember, she's my little sister. You're angry with her right now. That's okay. We'll get her back. She deserves it. But we're not going to kill her... We're just going to make her dance."

~~~~~[END]~~~~~

It gets weirder.

Thanks go to Aondehafka and Edward, for the help, as well as Me, whoever Me is.

Any mistakes are my own.

If you see any, let me know.

Feedback greatly appreciated.


	6. Fetching

Thyself Known

**Ch.**** 6: Fetching**

By Zorknot

**Disclaimer**:   There once was a boy from Jusenkyo   
Owned by TakahashiRumiko   
He changed sex with cold water   
Changed back with hotter   
Y no se si es chicao chico.

**What Has Come Before**: Nabiki and Ranma have fallen for each other after a mind meld saved Nabiki's life. In other news, Shampoo renounced her Amazon-hood and enlisted Ukyo's aid in carrying out revenge on Cologne for making her an unwilling sex kitten. Meanwhile Akane is coming to terms with the idea that she may have acted a teensy bit like a psychotic uber-bitch earlier, and is wondering if maybe Ranma might not want to be her fiancé anymore. She wishes things were different, but she can't think of any way to fix the situation. Well, Miss Tendo, say goodbye to the status quo...__

~~~~~[BEGIN]~~~~~

_"The saris go by me from the embassies.  
  
Cloth from the moon. Cloth from another planet.  
They look back at the leopard like the leopard.   
  
And I...   
             This print of mine, that has kept its color  
Alive through so many cleanings; this dull null...  
  
                        You know what I was,   
You see what I am: change me, change me!"_

-Randall Jarell Fr. "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" 

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Tendo Akane walked slowly away from Furinkan High. It was a wonderful day. The sky was deep blue with wispy clouds that almost weren't there, birds soared majestically over head, and the sun sparkled prettily off of the broken glass underneath the gaping hole in Hinako-sensei's English class.

  Akane couldn't enjoy the view though. As usual, she was thinking about Ranma. 

  Was this what love was? Constantly thinking about someone all day, every day? Having all emotion dedicated to the actions of one solitary human being? Wanting to beat that person to a pulp one second, and then wanting to be one with him forever the next? 

  A light zephyr of fresh air blew through her blue school uniform and rustled the sunny tree limbs above her. A curled up, brown fist of a leaf that had escaped half a year's worth of raking, Neriman weather, and general decay, skittered toward Akane on the street, blown by the wind. Akane's eyes riveted themselves to it as she passed, even as they misted over. 

  There was a time when Akane was on top of everything, when she knew exactly who she was and what she was doing. Sure, she had problems, but she could handle them, and maybe eventually solve them... Then there was Ranma, and then there was his mother, and now... Ranma would be at Tofu's clinic. He had after all saved Nabiki's life. Akane would have to apologize...only she wasn't sure she could.

  Akane's hands tightened around the brown handle of her bookbag. She took in a dry, empty breath, and continued walking, no longer exactly sure of where she was going. 

  And so it was that Akane was nearly run over by Ryoga as he ran down the street at a break neck speed. He skidded to a halt in front of Akane. A nervous smile was already on his face and his hand already behind his bandanna clad head when the dust cleared. "Akane-san! W...what are you doing in Okinawa?"

  "This is Tokyo, Ryoga," she informed the lost boy while wiping the moisture from her eyes.

  "It is? I could have sworn...I mean...I knew that! I was just...making a joke! Heh heh." Ryoga looked off at nothing as he said this, his face growing redder by the second. Now he turned his head back toward Akane and lowered his hand. He frowned. "You were crying...What did that bastard Ranma do to you now? I'll kill him! I'll pound him so far into the dirt his feet will be kicking in Times Square! Or rather... they won't be... because he'll be dead!" 

  "Thanks, Ryoga, but it's not really his fault this time. It's mine. I just feel so...it's nothing." Akane sighed and tried to smile.

  "It can't be your fault! Did he say it was your fault? He's wrong! He's telling you lies, Akane-san! Don't listen to him!" Ryoga shook his fist in anger.

  Truth be known, Akane was a little afraid of Ryoga. Razor sharp belts whizzing through her hair, barely missing her neck, attempts at hugs that crushed concrete pillars, and his various maniacal obsessions just made Akane a little uneasy around him. But the main reason she was afraid of Ryoga was that, looking into his angry yellow-brown eyes, every now and then Akane got the queasy sensation that she was looking at a distorted reflection of herself.

  "Why do you fight with Ranma so much?" Akane asked suddenly.

  Ryoga was taken aback for a moment but soon recovered. "Because of him, I've seen Hell! He keeps running away and tricking me instead of fighting like a man! Plus, he mistreats you all the time! I will destroy his happiness if it's the last thing I do!"

  "What do you mean you've seen Hell? You say that all the time, and it seems like something important, but you never say what it is..."

  Ryoga's face was now somber and his eyes lost a little of their fire. "You wouldn't understand, Akane-san. There's no way you could know the tortures he put me through."

  "What tortures? It can't just be the bread, can it?"

  "IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BREAD! Don't LISTEN to him Akane! You've never been to an all boy's school. You can't know what it's like. Maybe if you were a martial artist..."

  "I _AM_ A MARTIAL ARTIST!" Akane fumed.

  "Um...right! Of course you are! I meant... if you were a martial artist GUY. Yeah. If you were a martial artist AND a guy you would understand...er gotta go, bye!" Ryoga smiled nervously and ran off in the direction he came, yelling "Just you wait, Ranma! Today you meet your doom!"

  Akane felt sick. She could stop Ryoga, keep him from fighting Ranma, but then again she couldn't. Some part of her _wanted Ryoga to beat Ranma to a pulp. Some part of her wished she could do it herself. But she would get just as much pleasure from nursing Ranma back to health, mending his wounds, feeding him...only she couldn't do any of that. She couldn't cook, and bandages in general were recondite to her._

  What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she do anything? Why was she so clumsy? It shouldn't be so hard to learn how to swim, or sew, or cook, and Ranma made it all look so damned easy... 

  Ranma. It all came back to him. 

  Akane kicked a stone idly as she walked. Her eyes wandered to her bookbag, wherein a letter rested amidst well-worn books and folders. A letter she must not let anyone see. The assistant principal had something else to say to Akane after she got the phone call... Her grades were dropping through the floor.

  Before Ranma had come to Nerima, Akane had been an honor student. She had never gotten lower than a "B" in anything. Now...she was doing okay in History, but she was failing everything else. She was just too distracted. 

  Was this love? Because if it was, Akane wanted out. 

   Only she didn't. 

  It was all so frustrating. Akane needed to get home and smash a few bricks with her fists. That would make her feel better.

  Only it wouldn't.

  She came upon an abandoned lot that wasn't quite as abandoned as it usually was. Through the chain link fence, Akane could see Shampoo and Ukyo sitting in the shade of a cherry tree, talking animatedly about something. 

  Akane entertained the brief fantasy that they were both declaring their lesbian love for one another and would from now on leave Akane to her Ranma troubles in peace. Unfortunately, it was far more likely that the two were planning something.

  Akane shrugged. She desperately needed a distraction from her thoughts, even if the distraction was the two prettier and more talented rivals for Ranma's affection. She bound over the fence and slipped a bit in the mud as she landed, waving her arms around to keep balance. 

  "Damn, Sugar, I'm surprised you cleared the fence!" Ukyo quipped. She and Shampoo had just been talking about how wrong for Ranma Akane was, something they had always been in agreement on, when the girl had stumbled into their midst. 

  "Shut up, Ukyo. I have enough problems without your insults on top of it all. So why don't you tell me just what you two have planned?"

  Ukyo showed her hands, "It's kind of Shampoo's business, Sugar. It really doesn't concern you."

  "DOESN'T CONCERN ME?" Akane yelled, "He's MY fiancé dammit!" Akane winced immediately afterwards. She had, for the umpteenth time, cancelled the engagement that very morning.

  "This isn't about Ranchan, Akane. When are you going to learn to listen? It's _Shampoo's_ business. Besides he's my fiancé too you know..."

  "Ukyo, stop." Shampoo put a hand on Ukyo's shoulder. "Is Akane's business too."

  "What do you mean?" 

  "Akane affected by Amazon technique. For almost year now."

  "What?" Akane said.

  "Sai Fang Heng Gow." Shampoo explained.

  "Oh." Akane nodded. "Huh?"

  "Shampoo— Honey, you're not making things much clearer here," Ukyo noted.

  "Shampoo use Sai Fang Heng Gow on Akane. Make Akane forget Ranma," Shampoo said motioning toward her temple.

  "You mean that Shiatsu attack! You know I've been to several salons since then, and I've never been able to recreate that refreshed feeling." 

  Shampoo smiled proudly "Shampoo give too too good brainwashing. No other compare."

  "Wait a minute here," Ukyo held up her hands "you mean you can brainwash people?"

  Shampoo nodded, "Is true. Though need special shampoo to do."

  "Why aren't you married to Ranma right now then?" Ukyo knew that if SHE could brainwash people she'd...she'd what? Manipulate Ranma's mind so that he'd love her? Give Akane and Shampoo a lobotomy? Ukyo shook her head. She couldn't do that. Not to Ranma, probably not to anybody. But she had thought of it...when had she gotten this desperate?

  Shampoo was silent for a while. "Ranma like Akane. I know this from when give kiss of marriage. Ranma let violent girl hit. Ranma not like it when make Akane forget him. Ranma not Ranma if change mind. Shampoo hand tied."

  "Quit talking as if I'm not here!" Akane demanded.

  Shampoo turned to Akane with half-lidded eyes. "I no like you. You is not warrior, you is small child in body of womans what play with Art." She looked away, "I forget sometime it not all you fault."

  Akane raised her fist. "Look who's talking, you Chinese bimbo!"

  Ukyo marveled at how thoroughly Akane illustrated Shampoo's point for a moment before returning her attention to Shampoo. "Just what are you saying, Shampoo?"

  "Sai Fang Heng Gow what erase memory, but must have formula 110 shampoo to make last for longer than few minute. It freeze brain, keep from changing too much." Shampoo took in a breath and then let it out. "Keep Akane from learning new skill."

  A wind picked up, waving the wispy yellow-green grass of the lot. A leaf tumbled across the ground between the three girls. Akane felt a chill.

  Ukyo blinked her eyes in understanding. "So...all this time...Akane not being able to learn any new techniques, or how to swim, or cook..."

  "I can cook curry pretty well now, thank you very much!"

  "...or listen," Ukyo continued, "it's all from this technique you performed on her almost a year ago?"

  Shampoo shook her head. "Not from technique, from formula 110 shampoo. One dose just enough to keep brain frozen until Sai Fang Heng Gow become permanent, but Akane receive second dose..." 

   "Ranma...he washed my hair with the same formula of shampoo!" Akane remembered. "He tried to cure me but made things even worse! And all to satisfy his ego! All because he couldn't handle me not remembering him!"

  "Listen, Jackass, Ranma couldn't have known it would do that to you! Ranma isn't to blame for every thing that happens to you! I would think you would have learned that...by...now." Ukyo deflated a little. "Oh."

  Shampoo nodded. "Is all Shampoo fault."

  "Well it was your fault too, Sugar. Let's not forget that," Ukyo pointed out.

  "That what I say! Is all Shampoo fault!"

  Ukyo frowned for moment then hit her palm with her fist. "You want to say 'it's all MY fault!'"

  "But how could it have been your fault, Ukyo? You weren't even there." Akane asked.

  Ukyo buried her forehead in her palm.

  "Is all...my...fault" Shampoo repeated. "I know what shampoo do, and still almost use again on Akane before Ranma punch to beat. Akane probably get better at curry because is skill she know before. Just improve on. But no can learn new food she never make before."

  Akane thought back. Just before that day when she challenged Shampoo, she had given up on Tofu, trained in Martial Arts Rhythmic Gymnastics, had been getting A's in Algebra and Biology, and was maybe possibly just starting to think of Ranma as more than a strange sort of friend while at the same time getting annoyed that he didn't protest Shampoo's affections more. 

  After Shampoo used her technique...what? Things happened. She helped out Ranma a few times, had a few battles, but emotionally and ability-wise she had been in a holding pattern ever since. She had learned no new techniques, her grades in everything that required more than rote memorization had started to fall, and even after Ranma proved himself hundreds of times to her...Things between them had gotten worse, not better. It was all a vicious cycle that she couldn't seem to break out of... "I...I thought it was stress...I thought..."

  "Wait a minute here," Ukyo said, "How is it she can learn information like this, but not how to do anything?"

  "Brain tricky. People what have no memory of self still know how talk. Sometime in village, someone have brain problem. No can use part of face or body but just fine with other parts. Sometime even get new ability. 110 formula work on parts what make new techniques, but must use Sai Fang Heng Gow to change other parts."

  "Why now?" Akane asked, "Why tell me now? All this time and you wait till now to gloat! Did Ranma sleep with you? Is that it? Did the two of you get together after I left and have sex kitty style or something?"

  "What Violent Girl know about it?" Shampoo screamed, "She no get anything! She stupid even before Shampoo use shampoo! Akane watch and do nothing! Akane watch Ranma cat almost...almost..."

  "What are you talking about? You two were pawing at each other like cats in heat! How is that different from what you normally do?"

  Ukyo stepped in front of Shampoo. "Akane, Shampoo's not an Amazon anymore. She renounced her marriage to Ranma; that's why she told you all this. The way I figure it, you deserve what you got. Now leave, before I decide to reconsider my pledge not to beat up the weak."

  "What? But..."

  "Leave, Akane. Maybe it's not all your fault, but I don't care right now. Just go."

  Akane stood for a moment trying to think of something to say, but the look in Ukyo's eyes told her that talking right now wasn't the smartest of ideas. Besides what did she care? These were her rivals! Resolved, Akane turned back toward the fence. 

  They were also her friends.

  Akane slammed her open palm into on of the metal posts of the fence. It bent inward deeply from the blow. Letting her frustration move her now, Akane threw her bookbag down, grabbed the links of the fence with her hands pulling, ripping, and tearing them apart with a series of snaps and low creaking sounds.

  Her hands bleeding now, Akane picked her bag up again, shoved herself through the hole she had made in the fence and walked on to Tofu's clinic as the implications of everything she had learned percolated in the blast furnace of her mind.

  "Note to self," Ukyo muttered, staring blankly at the hole in the fence, "Never, under any circumstances, let Akane hit me."

  Shampoo nodded. "Is very good note."

~~~~~*~~~~~

  She was a girl. She stood naked in front of the full-length mirror in Tomo Hoko's bedroom, fondling herself. But she was not Tomo Hoko.

  The person in the mirror was a normal looking teenage girl. Not a bombshell by any means; she had average dimensions and long hair with bangs that partially hid a face that was just pretty enough to be unnoticeable in a crowd, which suited her just fine. But it wasn't her. Or was it? 

  She caressed her anatomy, tickling nerves on each patch of skin that told her that she was the same as this girl in the mirror. _Is this me? Is this my body? Are these my breasts? Are these my thighs? Is this my..._ She bit her lower lip, barely stifling an involuntary squeal of pleasure. _They say beauty is only skin deep...but isn't the skin the largest organ in the body? Isn't how you look the main component of who you are?_

  Tears passed down her cheeks even as shudders of pleasure passed through her. She cried now even more than earlier, in the bathroom, when she had been slicing her arms with a razor. Not to kill. She didn't want to die, not yet anyway. No, she needed pain, she needed pleasure, she needed this body that she saw reflected back at her to convince her that she belonged here, that she could stop looking, that here in front of her, was her true self.

  But she knew that wasn't true. 

  She woke that morning in Tomo Hoko's bed, to the sound of Hoko's mother knocking on the door. If she had gotten up then or even remained silent, she would right now be following Nabiki around or participating in some grand scheme of hers. Instead, she had taken a perverse pleasure in telling the woman to fuck off. 

  Naturally, Hoko's mother was concerned and came through the door, and naturally, upon seeing the girl she thought to be her daughter openly masturbating she had become even more worried. The last straw though, she reflected, had been when she asked Hoko's mother if she wanted to help.

  That was stupid. 

  Now, she was essentially under house arrest, with her ad hoc mother concerned about how "ill" she was. Ill indeed. She wondered idly now, as the intense feelings she had generated washed out of her in a sigh of ecstasy, how concerned Hoko's mother would be if she knew that the real Tomo Hoko was stone dead, cut into pieces and laying strewn about the city dump.

  Perhaps the poor woman would have a heart attack and save her from having to kill the bitch herself.

  Focusing on her image in the mirror and blurring out the marks on her arms with her mind, she brought out her demon cloth from null space and passed it over herself. When she looked in the mirror again, the marks were gone. It wouldn't do to have herself thrown into a mental institution for her little weakness this morning. If she didn't already have a goal in mind, going to a mental institution might actually be fun, but she had to remain focused as much as possible.

  She smirked to herself. One of the perks of owning the cursed demon cloth was that she never had to shave, or cut her hair, or clip her toenails, or even bathe if she didn't want to. She was a little slow in catching on to this hidden benefit, but now she took it for granted. Sometimes...like today...she missed all that though. 

_  The Migration never ends_

  The Migration. The fucking Ijuu. Someone else had joined it, she could feel it like a static charge in her brain. There was no doubt in her mind that it was Ranma. The bastard would probably get through the initial stages smelling like roses. He had people that cared about him, after all, even if he was an arrogant prick. She'd like to see what he'd do if he had to grow up in a orphanage, spent all his time moving from place to place without any ties to anyone, without a single constant save himself. She'd like to see what he'd do if even that last refuge eroded away, leaving nothing but a shadow...a desperate, hungry shadow...

  But she'd settle for a gruesome death in a pinch.

  She took a breath and calmed herself. She had to convince Hoko's mother that she was alright and that it was just especially painful cramps or something. She had to be ready for Nabiki's scrutiny, and while she could do this with enough concentration, she had to be mellow.

  First things first, she had to get dressed. She went to the dresser and opened the top drawer. The panties. She picked up a pair and smelled them, but they just weren't as fulfilling laundered. Tomorrow at school she'd be in the girls' locker room and she'd get all the panty action she wanted there. If she hadn't blown it this morning...

  But no matter. She put on the panties and a bra she found, taking time to leer at herself in the mirror a bit, and then went to the closet for some outer wear. 

  She decided she liked being a girl. It was like she was her own prostitute, and she didn't have to pay. Even the masturbation was wonderful, once she got the hang of it. 

  Hoko's mother was a pain. She wished she could just kill her, but of course if she did, then she'd have to kill Hoko's father as well, and then the people at Mr. Tomo's business firm would wonder where he'd run off to, and things would lead to more complicated things. It just wasn't worth it.

  She decided to go with a short skirt and dark colored top with a jeans jacket. She put on long black socks that went past the knee and black sneakers. She looked in the mirror again. It seemed okay, but as far as she knew she could be breaking several major fashion rules. She blinked. The girl in the mirror blinked. She liked how she looked right now. 

  There was a pang as she realized she had lost another part of herself.

  "I am Copycat Ken." She asserted to her reflection... but it felt wrong, alien now. She was not Ken anymore. Ken would have just copied whatever Hoko had worn before she died. Now after several months of stalking people, of killing them, stealing their lives and making them her own for days, even weeks on end, she could no longer say with any certainty whether she was male or female. "I _was Copycat Ken" she said sadly, "Now, I'm just Copycat"_

  Ever since that last battle with Ranma, she had been unable to find her true form, the body she had been born with. Ever since then, she could only be other people, never herself. She tried to remember what she looked like, but she had no pictures of herself, and instead of getting closer to finding her original form, she found it slipping further and further away. 

  Copycat left the room, whereupon she was quickly intercepted by Hoko's mother. "Just where do you think you're going, young lady?"

  Copycat smiled, "I feel much better now, Mom. I was just...I had a weird...personal dream...and I didn't expect you there..."

  Hoko's mother nodded. "I know you're growing up, but that's really no excuse for...Hoko, dear, that just didn't seem like you at all. I was almost sure you were possessed or something like in that American movie...Are you sure you're alright?"

  "I'm fine, Mom! I'm going to go to Tofu's anyway to get a note for class tomorrow. I'm sure if there's anything wrong he'll find it."

  "Do you mind if I go with you? You really had me worried."

  "Oh okay. How do I look?" 

  "You look...very fetching."

  Copycat laughed.

  "What's funny, dear?"

   "Nothing," she waved it off sobering, "just a private joke."

   "I'll just get my purse and then we can go, okay?"

  "Sure" Copycat agreed. She crossed her arms and leaned up against the wall as she waited for Hoko's mother. She allowed herself to think optimistically for a few moments. Four months of careful planning, stalking, observing and she was now almost ready to make her move on Saotome. First, though, she had to take out his most effective defense against her...Nabiki. The Ijuu...it would complicate things, but no matter what, the end result would be the same. 

  Ranma was going to die.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  "PREPARE TO DIE, RANMA!" Hibiki Ryoga ran along the street away from Akane. She had gotten angry at him! Angry. At him! It had to be Ranma's fault. All those awful insults he threw at Akane every day...it must have been rubbing off on him! 

  How could he say that Akane wasn't a martial artist! She was a wonderful martial artist! Not compared to himself or Ranma or Mousse or even Kuno in a real no-holds-barred fight, but still better than most. Maybe he could convince Akane to go on a training trip with him! That way she could feel better about her martial arts and he could have all that time alone with her! 

  But...if she refused...

_Akane in a yellow sun dress and white hat looks up at Ryoga with tears in her eyes and shakes her head. "No, Ryoga, I'm afraid I cannot go with you on a training trip," Akane lifts the back of her hand to her brow and looks away in anguish, "for, alas, my heart belongs to Ranma, and I cannot bear to be apart from him..."_

  Ryoga shook his head violently. No! His fragile heart of glass could not withstand it!

  Ryoga thought he heard Ranma just then. Ranma...calling him a coward.

  "NO! I am no coward, Ranma! Just you wait! Today you meet your doom!" Ryoga ran on. He had to keep moving. Keep his goal in mind...otherwise he'd lose track and start to think of other things.

  Why DID he fight Ranma so much?

  It was a question that Ryoga himself asked from time to time in the dark chill of night beside a dying fire. But he already knew the answer, and thinking about it just drove him further into the dark depths of his insurmountable depression.

  So Ryoga kept running, and concentrated solely on that, and on his goal. He paid no heed to stray thoughts or to the passing scenery. Nothing could distract him from his revenge. "RANMA! PREPARE TO..."

  "...shake vigorously and pour the liquid down the throat." Dr. Tofu looked up and smiled at the young man who had just made a rather large hole in the wall of the examination room. "Good to see you, Ryoga, but you know you really shouldn't disturb me when I'm with another patient."

  "Oh we don't mind, doctor. It's nice knowing that my husband and I aren't THAT strange." Yamashita Niburi adjusted the position of her arm underneath her husband's small body with a smile. "Isn't that right, my little sweetums?" she tickled her husband's nose with her finger.

  "Thtop that! Woman, I thweal..."

  "Um...is Ranma here? I'm trying to kill him." Ryoga said eying the Yamashitas. If he didn't know any better he'd swear that the baby had just talked. 

  "He's in the waiting room," Tofu pointed to the door, "Just take it outside if you could and...make sure Ranma is wearing his earrings."

  Ryoga headed for the door.

  "Ryoga..."Tofu called after him.

  "What!" Ryoga snapped back.

  "That's the closet."

  "What's Ranma doing in the closet? I thought you said he was in the waiting room."

  "I did. The waiting room is over _there," Tofu pointed again, "that door leads to the closet."_

  "So where's Ranma?"

  "In the waiting room!"

  "But you just said..."

  The baby spoke up, "Ith that..._the _Lyoga? Hibiki Lyoga...the famouth lotht tlavelel?"

  "Huh?" Ryoga asked...the baby DID talk!

  "They tell thtolies about you in Thikoku! Evely week ol tho you letuln to The Town of the Boal with giftth flom dithtant landth! That'th how I came aclotht the map to the Fountain of Youth!"

  "Ryoga, have you been to the Fountain of Youth?" Tofu asked, grabbing Ryoga by the shoulders.

  "Y...yeah." His eyes widened, "So that's why that baby can talk!"

  "Do you know of any cure?" Tofu asked.

  "Er...have you tried hot water?"

  "Hot water?"

  "You know...like Jusenkyo?"

  Dr. Tofu pushed his glasses up on his nose. He turned on the hot water in the sink. When it was just short of scalding he filled a glass and poured it on the baby. In that instant, all of Yamashita Ichiro's eighty-five kilos returned to him and he fell to the ground with nothing but a bit of blanket to cover his special purpose.

  "Looking for portents in the stars, we must remain mindful of our feet." Tofu said over the stunned man on the floor.

  "You mean all this time...ALL this time I spent as helpless baby...and THAT'S the cure?" Ichiro stood up shakily, barely remembering to cover himself. 

  "It wasn't that obvious, I mean, who would think of throwing water that hot on an infant?" Niburi argued.

  "It's not a cure...You'll be a baby again with a splash of cold water," Ryoga noted.

   "How do you know that exactly, Ryoga?" Tofu asked chuckling. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you fell in yourself!"

  Ryoga laughed nervously and his hand found itself on the back of his head. "Umm...where was Ranma again?" 

  Niburi put a hand on Ryoga's shoulder. "I'll lead you to her. It's the least I can do."

  "Oh, so you're going off with other men, now, is that it?" Ichiro quipped.

  Niburi turned back. "Is my little Ichikins worried I might leave him? I swear I'll be right back and we can play a nice little game of peek-a-boo." Niburi laughed. "You're _such_ a baby!"

  As they went through the doorway to the waiting room, Ryoga heard Ichiro remark, "I'm never going to live this down, am I?"

  It made him smile for a moment. 

  Then of course he saw Ranma-chan sitting suspiciously close to Nabiki while they played some sort of card game with Kasumi. Genma and Soun played shogi in the opposite corner. _Ranma, that bastard! Having fun with other women while Akane suffers..._

  "You're going to have to tell her some time you know. It's just going to get worse if you don't," Niburi said softly.

  Ryoga nodded. "I know, I've been wanting to, but things get so complicated...Wait a minute!" Ryoga turned toward Niburi, "How did you know about Akane?"

  "Hmm?" Niburi looked up slightly, showing her mature, delicate complexion with its slight smile, "Akane? So sorry, I was talking about Ranma!" She indicated the red-head with a raised open hand.

  Ryoga was silent.

  "Oh, it's obvious! Well, if Ranma hadn't told me she was really a girl all along I might not have made the connection I suppose but..."

  "Ranma said that? No. Ranma's a guy. He would never say something like that. That'd be like giving up. And even if he _were a girl I would never..."_

  "Right. You would never. So you just find any excuse to be with her."

  "Listen, lady, you got your signals crossed or something. Ranma's my worst nightmare. Nothing would make me happier than to see her...him dead."

  Niburi sighed. "Fine, fine. Just trying to give some advice. If you don't mind then, I'll just leave you to your homicide." She smiled impishly "It's been a while since I've seen my husband all grow'd up."   

  Ryoga stood unmoving for a moment after Niburi went back into the office, looking at the girls and Ranma. He couldn't just threaten to kill Ranma again, not after what Niburi said. It'd be like proving her right...

  Ranma-chan laughed, and damned if it didn't happen in slow motion... with sparkles.

  Ryoga squeezed his eyes shut against the image, but even as he did so, he wasn't sure if he was trying to keep it out, or tying to keep it in. Ryoga could feel it sure as anything...he was about to spend a long time on the road. 

  When he opened his eyes, though, he had to say something..."Ranma, how dare you go out with Nabiki behind Akane's back!"

  Ranma turned her head slowly in Ryoga's direction. "Howdy, Oinkster! Good of you to join us! Say, you're a guy right?"  Ranma picked up a card that Kasumi had just shown her and Nabiki and asked, "Tell me, what does this look like to you?"

  "A Rorschach inkblot," Ryoga answered in spite of himself.

  "Yeah, I _know_ that. Why do you think we're messing with them? So... what do you see?"  

  Ryoga found himself studying the mirror image on the card. It was random and splotchy, of course, but there was something about it.  Thin on either end, wide closer the center and then thin again where the fold would be, it looked disturbingly like... "A mask. Like one of those cheap plastic Halloween things."

  "Oh come on! It's a bra! Look there are the straps..."

  Ryoga's eyes shifted to Nabiki's amused and smug expression and then back to Ranma. 

  "Okay...maybe I'm a little worried about Mom coming, okay? I could have told you that."

  "Ranma-chan's right, Nabiki. That could be what it is. The inkblots are not precise. The things you see in them are like the symbols in a dream. Sometimes their meaning is quite literal, as would be the case if Ranma is only worried about having to wear a bra. Other times though, they can be much larger. Nabiki, how would you feel if Ranma was never a man again?"

  "It really wouldn't bother me," Nabiki replied seriously. "I always kind of liked Ranma as a girl anyway." Nabiki turned to Ranma now, "I know, I know, but I have to say it. You seem freer somehow. More yourself. Except when your mother's around of course."

  "Well, I guess I _am pretty well built..." Ranma said pushing out her breasts._

  "And that right there proves you'll always be a man inside," Nabiki smirked. "Hey, Kasumi, is it just me or is Ranma bigger?"

  "Oh my, Ranma-chan's growing up!"

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Let me check..." Nabiki grabbed Ranma's breast.

  "HEY!"

  "Yep, definitely bigger than last time." Nabiki nodded officially.

  "Let's see how big YOU are..." Ranma-chan threatened and grabbed a hand full of Nabiki.

  Ryoga couldn't take it anymore. "Ranma! What do you think you're doing?"

  Ranma, out of reflex, immediately brought her hand back to her side. "What are ya talking about?"

  "Akane's your fiancée!"

  "Actually, I'm his fiancée now," Nabiki informed.

  "What do you mean?"

  Ranma turned to Ryoga. "Look, Pigface, Akane broke it off again this morning, and a lot of things happened since then, alright? It's not the first time it's happened; let's just hope it's the last. I would think you'd be happy anyway."

  "What about your honor, Ranma?"

  "Hey, Nabiki's a Tendo too, you know, and Shampoo and Ukyo both have valid claims to boot. Why are you getting so worked up over this?"

  "I'm not talking about your stupid engagement! I'm talking about Akane's feelings! She deserves to be told...instead you're...groping Nabiki without her knowing!"

  "Hmmm...now why does this sound familiar? Oh yeah! You've been copping free feels from Akane without letting her know! Listen, man, right now, I don't even want to think about her, and I don't think I could stand living with her for the rest of my life. She's free, no strings attached. Get her while she's hot."

   Ryoga felt the depression building. The depression that would never go away, that was always there, waiting for him, whenever he dared think clearly. If Akane wasn't Ranma's fiancée, then he wouldn't have an excuse to...to... "I won't allow it. I can't! I..."

  A splash of cold water shocked Ryoga and turned him into a piglet. He watched with surprise as Kasumi gently placed the empty fire bucket to her side. "Forgive me, Ryoga-kun," she bowed, "but you were disturbing our harmony."

  "Hey I just thought of something..." Ranma said, "If my female side is growing, how come Ryoga's pig form hasn't gotten bigger or anything?"

  "Maybe his curse is special... or maybe he fell in a different spring and the curses mixed?" Nabiki shrugged.

  "Yeah...I'll have to ask him when I get the chance."

Ryoga in pig form turned and clicked away from Ranma and the others. It was so easy for Ranma. Always so easy. In junior high, it had taken months for Ryoga to establish himself as the top martial artist. It had taken Ranma a day to take it away, making Ryoga once again just a "stupid lost boy." Ryoga challenged Ranma again and again, but each time Ranma would win. Ryoga became a joke. He lost all of the friends he had made. He got lost more and more often. Everyday Ryoga would see Ranma laughing with friends that were once his, succeeding in all the areas where he had failed. It was Hell. Pure and simple. And Ranma was an undefeatable guardian of paradise...of the bread, of the respect, of Akane...Everything that Ryoga wanted, Ranma would already have. But now Akane was free. Now Ryoga could see her without guilt...and for some reason he wasn't at all happy. 

  For some reason, he was even more depressed.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Two and a half centimeters. That was all. 

  No divine hand. No chivalrous knight. No moat teaming with fantastic and terrible monsters. Just two and a half centimeters. That was all that protected Tendo Akane from Ranma's words as they stabbed unerringly into her heart.

  Then again if the door had been a little thicker, maybe Akane would have gone inside. Maybe she would have seen first hand what she had heard. That would have been worse.

  There were a lot of ifs. If she had helped Ranma out of the Nekoken, if she had kept him away from Shampoo, if she hadn't been so cruel to him that morning, if his mother hadn't shown up when she did, if Shampoo hadn't used her shampoo to begin with...if, if, if, if. It made no difference.

  Nabiki was fine, even if she was in danger of dying. As long as Nabiki didn't come near her, Akane wouldn't kill her. Akane felt her mallet hand itching, and it took everything she had not to go through the door and swing away at Ranma. She knew he wasn't hers anymore, maybe never was, but she just couldn't grasp the meaning of that. It was another unknown variable in the indecipherable math equation that was her life.

  Then there was Ryoga. P-chan. Try as she might, she could not think of the two entities as being the same person, even with this direct evidence. And how many times had Ranma tried to tell her, even before Shampoo's formula 110? Shampoo was right. She had been stupid even before. But she needed P-chan, needed someone to talk to, someone she could trust. Even now, if P-chan came to her, she would hold him and cry and tell him everything just like before, even knowing what she knew, because she could not think of hurting the poor creature. She wished he would come out. She was so lost...

As if summoned by her thoughts, P-chan jumped out of a window and landed beside her. "Come here, P-chan, I...I need you right now." 

P-chan hesitated, then went to her.

Akane crouched and grabbed the pig, cradling him in her arms. She thought of entering the clinic, but it didn't seem like a good idea. If she went inside, she would do something she would regret. Whether it was hurt someone she loved, or simply break down. So Akane gathered up P-chan and her distended emotions and turned away slowly from the door of the clinic. 

  Just then, she saw Nabiki's friend Hoko walking with her mother toward the clinic. Caught between not wanting to seem rude and walk away and not wanting to talk to anyone, Akane wavered at the door until Hoko was there. "Good afternoon, Hoko-senpai," Akane greeted in a subdued tone with a small bow. "Tomo-san" Akane bowed deeper to Hoko's mother.

  "Hey, Akane-chan! What are you doing here?" Hoko asked.

  "I...um...I was just leaving. It's been a bad day...I'd rather not talk about it." Akane bowed again, trying to smile and only managing a grimace. She moved to go, but then Hoko grabbed her forcibly by the shoulder, surprising her, and causing P-chan to bwee in alarm.

  She found herself looking into the older girl's dark brown eyes. They were fierce, challenging...compassionate. Hoko smiled. "It's going to be okay, Akane-chan. It's all going to be okay."

  Akane nodded hesitantly. When Hoko released her shoulder, she left without any other words. She walked briskly from the clinic, needing to get away. 

For some reason, what Hoko said gave her the creeps.

"Great," Akane muttered, "I already felt angry, confused, and depressed...now I'm scared on top of that." Akane looked at the pig in her arms, looking up at her with a concerned expression. There was no way that the little pig could be the same as Ranma's violent martial arts rival that demolished city blocks on accident... Akane needed to think, she was all jumbled up inside. Luckily there was one place she could go, one refuge from the pain of living, a sanctuary from the thousand natural shocks inherent in the flesh that would not require excessive violence or the implementation of jagged, pointy objects to enter.

"Come on, P-chan," Akane said, "I need ice cream."

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Copycat was surprised to find the clinic so crowded. When she saw Ranma she stopped stock still. It took all she had not to pull out a tanto from null-space and slay the bastard then and there. But that would be too fair. Ranma would win in a fair fight. 

  "Hoko-chan?" Hoko's mother asked, "Is something wrong?"

  "Nothing, Mom, just had a strange thought..."

  "It wasn't...personal...was it?"

  "Mom!" Copycat laughed. It was easy to pretend to be Tomo's child. She had plenty of practice pretending to be other people's children after all. First in foster families, then with the families of the people she killed. Every time trying to make it work, but knowing that it wouldn't. In a way, she did love Tomo. In the end, it didn't matter. She'd still have to leave her eventually...if she didn't kill her.  

  Nabiki got up from her seat. "Hoko! You're alright?"

  Copycat nodded, "That's what I keep telling Mom, but she won't believe me."

  Nabiki frowned and seemed a little distracted as she said "Well...you know how parents can be..."

  A thirty-ish woman, attractive, yet dressed so conservatively she seemed older at first glance, left Tofu's office, her arm around that of a well-built man in a brown gi (probably Tofu's) with short burnt umber hair that spiked and curled wildly about the top of his head. Copycat got the impression that they had gotten together primarily because she liked to clean messes and he liked to make them. The two either had trouble finding time together, or one of them was impotent, because the woman didn't have the look of a mother, rather she had the slightly weary, hopeful look of someone worried she might never become one. Copycat was quite familiar with the type.

  The woman introduced the man to Nabiki and Nabiki bowed and thanked her. Apparently the couple was Yamashita Niburi and Ichiro, and apparently the woman, Niburi, had somehow helped save Nabiki's life. Then Nabiki introduced Copycat as Tomo Hoko and she greeted and thanked them. Copycat was genuinely thankful that Niburi had saved the life of her "best friend," If she hadn't, Copycat would not be able to kill her.

  Nabiki's powers of perception were perhaps even greater than Copycat's, even without the surveillance equipment with which the girl had a near symbiotic relationship. Copycat had chosen her first victim, Buntaro, based on the idea that no one knew who he was, that no one cared about him. After the second day at school, Nabiki approached Copycat and wanted to know what was going on, why Buntaro was acting so differently. Copycat said that it was trouble at home, the same excuse she had offered case workers years before she had joined the Ijuu and the oni offered her the demon cloth and the camera that could allow her to copy any ability. 

  Nabiki offered Buntaro a job. 

  When they found Buntaro's body, as Copycat hadn't yet hit upon the idea that merely burying a corpse was not enough, Copycat had to find someone else. It must have seemed strange to the police that the body was a week dead, while Buntaro was last seen the day before, but there was nothing in the paper about it. By chance Copycat had been using another form at the time, that of a male cop she observed earlier asleep on some sort of stake out, to do some spying on Ranma, otherwise she might have been found out. Aside from Buntaro's destitute mother, Nabiki was the only one at the funeral. Copycat had shown up as Generic Overworked Cop and asked Nabiki what her relationship was to the deceased. 

  "Potential friend," Nabiki had said simply.

  Potential friend.  

  It was then that Copycat knew that she'd have to kill Nabiki before she'd be able to get near Ranma. 

  Copycat smiled and said, "I guess I might as well get this check up over with." Tofu had since come out of the office and he and Hoko's mother exchanged some mindless pleasantries, before Tofu invited her and Copycat into his office, apologizing for the state of the room.

  Copycat wasn't worried about being found out. The demon cloth made Copycat a perfect copy of Hoko's body, including basic ki flow patterns. After a period of time, Copycat's own distinct ki pattern would start to become more visible, but by that time it would be attributed to changes in lifestyle. 

  Hoko's mother explained how she was worried her daughter might have been possessed by something, but she was sure it was nothing now and was sorry to take up Dr. Tofu's time. 

  Tofu simply nodded and examined Copycat, prodding certain spots and seeming to gaze through her.

  The problem with simply walking up to Ranma and slitting his throat when he least suspected it was that Ranma seemed to suspect it _all the time_. Ranma could detect things, dodge things, and anticipate things to the point where it was uncanny. Copycat had once, in the form of Ryoga, tried to kill Ranma in his sleep, only to have every attempt thwarted by a dodge. Copycat was almost certain Ranma had some kind of latent precognitive ability. 

  Ranma had his weaknesses, but he also had an annoying tendency to let everyone know what he was doing. Even if he could be goaded into a trap, it wouldn't matter because he'd say "Uh oh! Looks like I'm walking into a trap!" and his allies would eventually find out and rescue him. 

  Copycat had no allies. 

  In order to defeat Ranma, she had to rectify that situation. It was a long, arduous task to make new associations, she knew this from experience. Nabiki already had allies, it would be far easier to just steal hers.

  Tofu said that he could see nothing abnormal in the ki flow patterns and started with the physical check up. He asked Copycat to turn her head and cough. She did.

  Copycat's next victim had been a Japanese Language teacher. A single, middle-aged woman named Tanaka Kimiko. This time, Copycat was extra careful to get the personality down. She found the camera that stole abilities worked for personalities as well and it was fairly easy to fool the woman's students. It was considerably harder to stab the woman repeatedly with a tanto, stuff her in the trunk of her own car, drive some three hours into the countryside where no one was around, saw her up into segments and throw them into separate dumpsters as she traveled back to Tokyo.

  Copycat used her position as one of Nabiki's teachers to try to get some information on the girl. The thing was, Nabiki really didn't have any enemies. Many people did not particularly like her, but almost everyone Copycat overheard in the halls regarded her with a respect that bordered on worship. Once, while Copycat sat in the school office, Nabiki came in to see the assistant principal. Copycat listened in. Nabiki was saying that there ought to be a school wide martial arts tournament to raise money for the repairs to the gym that Ranma had damaged in his fight with Hinako-sensei.

  The tournament was held two weeks later.

  Nabiki was not infallible. She hadn't suspected anything of Copycat as she taught in the guise of Tanaka Kimiko, and while she got impeccable grades, Nabiki still made mistakes. She still mistook one complex kanji for another or turned papers in late same as anybody else. There was the occasional student who claimed to have won a heap of money off Nabiki in the betting pool. And the tournament had of course been a complete disaster. But the girl knew things. She got things done. And she was fair.

  The only possible chinks in her armor were her two closest friends, Inamura Yuki and Tomo Hoko. Yuki was extremely popular. She was friends with Nabiki in a large part because Nabiki kept Kuno from realizing that fact. Yuki had many friends aside from Nabiki and furthermore, her father was a police detective; so she wouldn't work for Copycat's purposes. 

  Hoko, on the other hand, was a loner. A nondescript wall flower who worked for the school newspaper and wrote ho hum articles about things people already knew with pictures that everyone had already seen. She wasn't an outcast or anything; she just kept to herself and didn't make any waves. She was perfect. But if Copycat was going to get so close to Nabiki, she had to make sure she had Hoko down perfectly. Luckily, there was one pathetic kid who no one really liked and who had almost every class with the girl. 

  So Copycat made as if she were retiring from teaching and moving to far away lands, and then set about killing Gosunkugi Hikari.

  "I don't see anything wrong, Tomo-san. Your daughter is just a perfectly normal, healthy, teenage girl."

  Copycat got up off the examination table as Tofu had Hoko's mother sign some papers so he could get paid from the insurance company. Then he walked her and Copycat out of the office, whereupon he and Hoko's mother exchanged a few more mindless pleasantries, which Copycat tuned out, until Tofu turned to her smiling and saying "...and you, young lady. You make sure not to kill your mother in her sleep okay?"

  "Um...right..." Copycat replied. She glanced at Tomo's pained expression and was grateful that she hadn't been the only one who thought Tofu's comment unfunny. She wondered just how much Tofu was hiding. He had the stink of Ijuu, but he behaved so innocuously... Maybe his remark was just an attempt at humor, but if it was, then perhaps Ranma wasn't the only one with latent precognitive abilities.

  Just then, Ukyo and Shampoo came in hesitantly from outside. From their body language, Copycat figured they had somehow put aside differences and were now friends. Ukyo seemed almost protective of Shampoo, so Copycat guessed something had happened to the Amazon and Ukyo had consoled her. Shampoo's hair was cut as if by a knife, which meant she had either left the Amazons, or she had an unfortunate run in with Ryoga. 

Copycat's eyebrow went up with interest at this turn of events.

When Ranma turned to see Shampoo she turned into a he and jumped...no... pounced on top of her, making a horrible rowrling...

  "Ranchan! What the HELL?" Ukyo screamed

  Shampoo screamed too but it wasn't quite a scream or even human sound.

  Nabiki got up out of her seat on the couch, her jaw open eyes blinking.

  Genma jumped up and flattened himself against the wall while Soun just sat stunned.

  Kasumi ran to Tofu's side and looked worriedly up at him, but all he could manage in response to the situation was a visible gulp.

  Ranma tore through Shampoo's cheongsam with invisible claws. One breast and upper thigh of the Chinese girl now showed. It was making Copycat excited and she started breathing exercises so she could enjoy the view without revealing herself.

  Shampoo whirled around and faced Ranma on all fours. She hissed and it was a cat sound only larger, louder. That same sound that made a small furry creature a source of fear now made this buxom girl from China positively terrifying.

  Ranma was not dissuaded. He attempted to circle around Shampoo, but the girl shuffled to face him. Nabiki moved closer to Ranma holding a hand out hesitantly. "Ranma...she...she doesn't want to mate with you."

  Ranma whipped around. "What would you know of it, HUMAN?"  Ranma turned back toward Shampoo but she was gone through the door, which she ripped apart in her escape. Without a second thought, Ranma bounded after her followed by Ukyo... and Nabiki.  

  Copycat wanted to applaud. Instead, she looked up at Hoko's mother and lied, "Mom, is it all right if you go home without me? I'm going to see if I can help Nabiki." Not waiting for the Tomo woman to respond, Copycat ran out and, when she was sure no one could see her, jumped onto the roof of a nearby building and continued after the three girls and Ranma. 

  She considered the possibility of being seen. Most people didn't know Hoko, but if Nabiki found out, she would have questions. On the other hand, Nabiki seemed rather preoccupied and was unlikely to be looking above her. The alternative was to use the demon cloth to change forms, but the only form she knew that would make sense would be Mousse and he was probably at the Nekohanten, which might cause some question-raising if there were reports of him being in two places at once. Also, in order to change back to Hoko, she would have to study a photo of her, as she had only changed into her once. Finally, if worse came to worse Copycat could always invent secret martial arts training for Hoko. So Hoko she would remain. She bounded over a gap between roofs. She was catching up to Nabiki and Ukyo but the "cats" were still far ahead. 

  She brought her camera out of null space and put her head through the strap, still holding on to it with her right hand as she ran to keep it from banging all over the place. She would get to Ranma eventually. The Nekoken was one of Ranma's most powerful techniques and soon, it would be hers. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

Akane asked for hot tea with her parfait. As soon as she had, P-chan started squirming. _He must be uncomfortable _Akane surmised, and adjusted her hold on the piglet. After she had her ice cream she would see the transformation first hand. Right now she wasn't ready for another blast to her worldview.

She sat down at a booth next to the window. Across the street she could see the Hot Dog and Coffee, a neat little café owned by a gaijin. She saw the owner walk out of the building and lean on the wall, lighting up a cigarette.

Akane took a spoonful of ice cream and put it in her mouth, watching the man. "I wonder what his story is." Akane muttered. "Did he ever love anybody? Does he know what it's like? Knowing that the one you love will never love you, but not being able to change? Not being able to learn how to cope with it?" Akane looked down at P-chan, "And you... I know you're Ryoga. But...I just can't picture it. It just doesn't seem right somehow."

P-chan bweed in astonishment.

Akane smiled, "I guess you want some ice cream too huh? Okay here you go!" Akane spoon-fed P-chan.  "It's funny. You've been sleeping with me for months now. If I thought for one second you were really Ryoga I'd probably be eating a ham sandwich right now.  But that's just it. I _know you're Ryoga...but all I can see is P-chan. It's all so confusing!" Akane's fist clenched. "What did I do to deserve this? Honestly!" She took several spoonfuls of parfait in quick succession._

She took a slower bite pensively as a knot grew in her throat. "There I go again. Typhoon Akane.  Let me just get angry at things, that will make them better! DAMMIT!" She slammed her fist on the table, startling some of the other customers. "I can't help it though! It's that shampoo. Shampoo's shampoo! It's all that bimbo's fault, no...it's all RANMA'S fault!"

P-chan bweed in sympathetic anger.

"Another spoonful? Okay." Akane fed the pig again. "Why can't I stop? Ranma didn't know about the side affects of a double dose of that stuff...But...arghh! It has to be the shampoo again! I can't even get it through my head that I've got a problem huh? Honestly! You aren't even a real pig!"  Impulsively Akane grabbed her Styrofoam cup of tea and splashed it on P-chan, feeling silly even as she did it.

Suddenly she had a very nude Ryoga sitting in her lap. "PERVERT!" Akane yelled and malleted  Ryoga into the ceiling, which he bounced off of, landing rather harshly on the thin padding of the booth seat.

"Ow," Ryoga said simply.

"I'm sorry Ryoga! I should have known you wouldn't have any clothes!"

"It's okay," Ryoga muttered nevously. When he sat up again he was clothed in his usual attire and he had his hand back behind his head. "I learned a few things from Mousse."

Akane nodded still a little stunned. "You're...you're P-chan?"

"Yes." Ryoga looked seriously into Akane's eyes.  "You don't know how long I've wanted to tell you, Akane! But Ranma always kept me from letting you know! And it was so nice, sleeping in your bed...I mean..."

"When were you sleeping in my BED?" Akane started to feel her anger rising, and then took a breath. "You mean P-chan. P-chan slept with me. Arrgh!"

"This is all Ranma's fault." Ryoga assured. "You need to cure yourself and then get back at him somehow. I could help you train..."

"You would do that, Ryoga? That would be great! But...I don't think I could actually fight Ranma. He's mean, but I still...I've got to get cured. I want these feelings to go away." Akane looked outside at the people entering the Hot Dog and Coffee. "Really, if I didn't lo...like Ranma...I don't think I'd want anything to do with him."

"You mean...you wouldn't want revenge? Not at all?"

"I don't know, Ryoga. I'm just tired of it all. I've fought Ranma for every little thing for so long...and really it was only because he can get so close to me. Get under my skin. It's really because I like him that I get so angry at him. If I could stop...if I could just realize that there is no way Ranma will ever like me back..." Akane smiled sadly. "I probably have about as much chance of getting Ranma to love me as you do now."

"Wha?"

"Hmph. I guess self doubt was something I was good at before Shampoo." Akane got up and put some coins on the table as a tip. "I'm going home to pack. I've got to get away. Yuka was right. You're really a nice guy, Ryoga. Maybe once I get cured we can get together again...If I don't beat you to a pulp."  With that Akane left Ryoga to sit at the booth alone.

Ryoga felt rather odd. He felt closer to Akane than ever before, but why did there seem to be something missing now? Why did Akane's proposition of getting back together make him nervous instead of excited? Why was Ranma chasing Shampoo on all fours outside the window? "Ranma, that bastard! Going after Shampoo now! That's it, I'm going to kill him!"

  "_I've fought Ranma for every little thing for so long...and really it was only because he can get so close to me. Get under my skin. It's really because I like him that I get so angry at him."_

Ryoga shuddered. Every now and then Akane gave him the creeps. It wasn't how she was so blithely violent all the time, or how she nearly crushed him whenever he slept with her as P-chan, that just made him a little nervous. No, what scared Ryoga about Akane was that sometimes, staring into her angry brown eyes, he felt like he was staring at a distorted image of himself.

He shook his head. "No. Ranma's my sworn enemy. I do NOT like her...him!"

The waitress came by to pick up the money and the empty parfait glass. She patted Ryoga on the shoulder, "You aren't fooling anybody, honey. Would you like anything?"

"N...no. I'm going to leave." Nodding at his own declaration, Ryoga got up and left the building.

Yes, it was definitely time to get lost.

~~~~~*~~~~~

    Ukyo should have done something...but it all happened so _fast._ She hadn't even considered the possibility that Ranma was at the clinic. She just thought Tofu could help Shampoo somehow. That maybe there was a pressure point that diminished sexuality or something. And when it happened...Ukyo had believed Shampoo, but it hadn't been _real_ to her until it was right in front of her. Her friendship to Shampoo was so new, and already Ukyo felt like she had betrayed it. And so she ran after her and Ranma. But they were so much faster. Both of them. 

  Ukyo heard the sound of shoes behind her, and she glanced back. Nabiki was running too! Even in her short glance though, she could tell Nabiki wasn't fit enough to run even the distance she already had. 

  Ukyo fell back, allowing Nabiki to catch up. "Why are _you_ running?"

  "Ranma...might kill...if...I...don't... stop him...Go back to Tofu's...get help."

  "Sugar, you aren't going to make another ten feet, there's no way you'll catch up to them."

   "I'll...catch up...you...go."

  Ukyo just ran beside Nabiki. To her surprise the Tendo girl started picking up speed. "Nabiki, how-?"

  "GO!" Nabiki waved her hand at Ukyo to go back....or at least that was what Ukyo thought she was doing until she felt a sharp burning pain. The chef slowed to a stop as she examined the four parallel tears in the arm of her boy's school uniform. She looked up at Nabiki who had already gained an uncanny amount of ground. She was bounding on all fours, catlike.

  "This is fast becoming an epidemic," Ukyo remarked to herself. The statement didn't begin to cover the strangeness of seeing the Ice Queen run off like that though. 

  "Hey you!"

  Ukyo turned to see a rather unkempt and rotund man with curly black hair and a moustache standing outside the door of the Hot Dog and Coffee. "Me?"

  "Yeah. You wanna buy a hot dog?"

  "No thanks, sugar," Ukyo said, "I'm trying to quit." In Ukyo's opinion, the worst thing a person could do with a piece of meat was turn it into a hot dog.

  "Heh heh. Fine suit yourself. I just know that after _I_ see three teenagers run past me on all fours after each other, a nice, normal hot dog sure sounds good."

  Ukyo had to admit she was tempted, but she had somewhere she had to be. "Maybe some other time. You've got an effective sales strategy there."

  The man shrugged. "Hey, this is Nerima."

  "That it is," Ukyo agreed with a sigh. "Take care." And with that she ran back toward Tofu's.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Nabiki wasn't sure at first why she followed Ranma out the torn down door of the Tofu clinic. It wasn't something she would normally do. Normally she'd acknowledge that Ukyo was the most qualified to defuse the situation and make sure she was prepared for every foreseeable eventuality.  But something told her Ukyo wouldn't be able to fix this. That only she could. 

  She hadn't done much aerobic exercise in the decade or so since she stopped practicing the Art, and she felt it as she pounded the ground with her feet after the others. In her mind though, she kept seeing Genma at the mercy of invisible claws... Over and over like a sports broadcast that was too enthused about its instant replay feature she saw the image. And she remembered the power, the freedom...By the time Ukyo fell back to talk to her, Nabiki was half-crazed from exhaustion and almost the rest of the way crazed by something inside her telling her she could be faster, she could be stronger... 

  Nabiki struggled desperately against this. She recognized the voice inside her, felt it as the cool weight of a pistol in her palm...it wasn't any different than that. But unlike a pistol she couldn't throw this away, she could not renounce it like a bad habit and be done. It was as much a part of her now as it had ever been for Ranma.

It wasn't until she involuntarily scratched Ukyo's arm though, that Nabiki understood. She had power, whether she liked it or not. The only thing she had any influence on was how she used it. She had to find some way to control it and there was really only one way to learn. 

Nabiki stopped resisting. 

  Immediately the world became a wash of sounds, smells, sensations... the bloody sweet sweat tang of Shampoo's menses attacked her nostrils immediately. As she concentrated she could discern Ranma's pleasant musk. She heard Ukyo talk with somebody far behind her but the words held no real meaning any more. She knew she was now running on all fours, but found it so natural she wondered why she didn't run that way all the time. 

  Then she wondered why she was running in the first place when, even now, she was so close to utter exhaustion. So Ranma wished to mate with the other female. What was the problem? It was her time, was it not? Ranma could mate with Nabiki when it was her own time. It was natural for the female to fight off the male at first. If she reached them she'd only be interfering in what might be a happy copulation. But then she had a thought...

_Ranma, Shampoo and I have human bodies. _

  Nabiki increased her speed, trying not to notice her ugly, pink, hairless hands as they pushed away the concrete underneath her...tried not to get frustrated at not being able to direct her hearing with her atrophied stumps of ears. Ranma being human and one with honor, would not copulate with another if he had a litter by Shampoo. If she let Ranma mate with Shampoo, she could lose him forever. Nabiki would not let that happen. 

  Ranma was hers.

~~~~~*~~~~~

  Kawagami Hiro knew he should have known better. The girl was still in High School, and she was a reckless driver on top of it. But he had fallen for her. 

  The way she moved on that bike, it was like she was one with it! He helped save her life, and while at the time he was too worried she might die to pay much attention, now he could not quite get the feeling of her lips on his to go away, even as he sipped black java at the Hot Dog and Coffee, remembering the image of her and that punk kid making out on the couch of Tofu's waiting room. The Hot Dog and Coffee was a favorite hang out for cops, first because of the coffee, and secondly because you could see all the girls coming out of the Sanjuuichi ice cream shop across the street.

  "Why so glum, chum?" asked Inamura Kentaro as he sat down across the table from Hiro. He had an extremely well-kept goatee that, combined with his oriental features, made one think simultaneously of Don Quixote and Kublai Khan. He tended to have more Quixote than Khan in him most times. People often wondered at how such an ebullient man could be a homicide detective, but he was, and he had definite limits to his pleasantness. 

  "It's this girl I gave a ticket to. Saved her life. She didn't even thank me and she was banging this punk..."

   "Hiro, Hiro, Hiro...you're like one of the women in the self defense class! You keep trying to save these girls, trying to change them but you can't. You can't ask a tiger to be a lamb."

  "This girl was different. She was intelligent, I could tell...and there was something else..."  
  "There all different. They're like snowflakes, but Hiro," Kentaro winked and glanced out at the Sanjuuichi meaningfully "They all taste the same on the tongue."

  "Yeah, I know. I just thought going back to being a traffic cop would keep me from having to deal with... women. And this one hit me harder than the others." Hiro sighed, "So you have any gruesome murders to lift my spirits?"

  "Heh. As a matter of fact... I was about to ask you to do me a favor."  
  Hiro had a good idea what it was, "You know, contrary to popular belief, Kentaro, I don't actually _like giving people bad news."_

  "But you're so _good at it!" Kentaro batted Hiro lightly on the side of the head._

  Hiro was caught in a disturbing niche of being one of the few cops that didn't absolutely dread telling people their friends or family members were dead. He wasn't an especially morbid guy, far from it. It was just that he'd rather someone hear it from him than a pimple-faced rookie or a callous veteran of the force. He wouldn't want cheery bright-eyed Kentaro to do it; that was for sure. Hiro sighed, "Okay, so who is it?"

  "It's a murder. A grisly one at that. Not one of those nice induced heart attacks no siree." Kentaro's voice had taken a slightly manic tone. This case had upset Kentaro more than usual. He was venting.  "This one all we got is a maggot infested arm that fell out of a dumpster about five o'clock this morning. We got the torso an hour or so later, so we ruled out self-amputation. We ran the prints...they belong to an eighteen-year-old girl. Maybe one of your waifs?..."

  Hiro tried not to think of Nabiki hacked into pieces. It was common knowledge troubled teens tended to have a short shelf life. But Hiro had been a troubled teen not all that long ago and Kentaro's humor hit a little too close to home. 

  The older cop continued, "She came by just three days ago to get her motorcycle license renewal signed by a notary public." Kentaro's face suddenly lost its brightness. 

  Hiro knew he was thinking about the murderer, about catching the bastard, about how fucked the judicial system was that let maniacs like that loose even after they were caught, about how it could have been his own daughter that had been killed. 

  "Tomo Hoko, that's the name of the victim." Kentaro took in a breath leaning back to gaze into the fluorescent light over head, "Alas, poor Hoko," he said and lowered his head to look at Hiro with smile as natural as a skeleton's and about as cheerful, "I knew her, Horatio."

  "Give me the address, and I'll take care of it." Hiro said solemnly.

  Kentaro handed him a copy of Hoko's file. He got up to leave and turned back, "I knew her." He left then, and Hiro knew that the man would be relentless in tracking the murderer down. Kentaro was in full Kublai Khan mode now, and for him, the divine wind was on his side.

  Hiro looked at the address on the file and shot to his feet. Tomo Hoko was Nabiki's next door neighbor! He ran to see if he could catch Kentaro, but he was distracted by someone turning up the volume on a TV in the café. "Hey check it out!" the fat, curly-haired man said.

  A four way intersection blocked by a naked couple having sex. They seemed to be making high pitched cat sounds. Hiro didn't really think when he saw the image. He just went out of the room, out of the building and onto his bike. 

~~~~~*~~~~~

  When Akane entered the building dressed in her yellow gi and carrying a backpack on her back, a man in long, white robes embraced her. 

  "SHAMPOO, MY LOVE!"

_  The Nekohanten,_ Akane thought sardonically, _they may not know your name, but they're always glad you came._ Akane pried Mousse's arms from her torso as best she could, explaining, "I'm not Shampoo, Mousse. Honestly!"

  Just then, Akane noticed the TV mounted on the wall...

_  "...Amazingly, instead of running over them, the first cars were blown back by some form of energy. Police officers are having difficulty getting to the scene owing to the sheer magnitude of the traffic jam the two love birds have caused. This just in! The names of the exhibitionists are Saotome Ranma and...CRASHsizzlepop"_

  Akane extricated her mallet from the television only a little self conscious.

  "Hey! We were watching that!" one of the Nekohanten customers exclaimed.

  Ignoring them, Akane turned to Mousse. "Is Cologne here?"

  Mousse put his glasses back onto his nose from the top of his head. "I'll take you to her." Mousse led her to the back of the restaurant, where Cologne was standing on the counter, hovering over a large pot of ramen. "Old ha...I mean Honored Elder?" Mousse bowed, "You have a visitor."

  She turned and saw Akane. "Ah yes, Tendo Akane!" She picked up her staff and hopped to the floor and then on to the top of the staff balancing on its tip. "You've been through a lot today, child. Feel free to let go of your pack and sit. May I ask where it is you're going?"

  Akane set her pack down and sat on it. Her eyes were now level with the Amazon elder's. "I'm going to a friend's house for the weekend. I need...distance."

  Cologne nodded, "You did leave a note, right? You mustn't let your family worry."

  "Yes, I left a note telling them where I'll be and I plan on calling as soon as I get there."

  "Good. You'll need as few distractions as possible the next few days or so."

  "You have what I called about?"

  Cologne brought a bottle of formula 119 shampoo "Yes, I have your cure, and I appreciate you telling me about Shampoo."

  "Forgive me, Cologne-sama, but I thought you'd be more upset about that."

  "Phah, I was the same as her back in my day. The truth is the Amazon culture can be a little stifling. If you don't rebel every now and then, you wither up and die. Shampoo's biggest fault was that she was too willing to follow orders. If she had just stayed in Japan to begin with, she'd be married to Ranma right now."

  Akane couldn't suppress a twitch in her eyebrow but managed to stay calm. "So you think she'll come back to you?"

  "I know she'll come back, child. Whether she wants to or not. It's her destiny."

  "Destiny? It can't be changed?"

  "Some things cannot be changed, child. We all grow old, we all die, the day inevitably darkens into night. Other things...they are as mercurial as a flame in the wind. This thing with Nabiki for instance. You know I wasn't expecting it at all? And now it seems like it should have been obvious. But to say that was destiny is an anthropomorphic fallacy. We try to make reality more human, because we can deal with people; we know how they operate. If this didn't happen, if that didn't happen...we start to wonder how it is that all these things were set up. We start to think of it as the fates playing with us. But the very nature of the word "if" should clue us in that there isn't a plan. You could just as easily be married to Ranma right now. So could Shampoo or Ukyo or nearly anybody. A billion random events conspired against you. A butterfly flapped its wings."

  "So I still don't have any control." Akane said bitterly.

  "Of course you have control! You are yourself part of the world you live in! You can affect it just as surely as it can affect you. You already do in fact, you just don't realize it because you don't observe. Do you know what the most awesome power in all of the universe is?"

  "What?"

  "The power of thyself known. If you know absolutely everything there is to know about yourself, then you can do almost anything given enough time. Case in point, if you knew that you had been affected by the formula 110 shampoo earlier, you would have gone to me or Tofu earlier and perhaps none of this mess would have happened. But instead of being in control, you were controlled, and so in a way, it's all your fault."

  "I don't see how I could have known..."

  "But you did know. You knew the first day that something was wrong, but you dismissed it. Of course, if everyone in the world stopped dismissing things, the world would be a lot less interesting."

  "I suppose you're right," Akane sighed.

  "Of course I am." Cologne crossed her arms, managing to stay balanced on her staff by her feet alone. "Have you made a decision?"

  Akane nodded.

  "So, would you like to be an Amazon?"

  "Yes. Yes, I would, Honored Elder."  
  Cologne smiled. "I'm pleased. Your training starts Monday. And don't think you're going to get out of paying for that television. Tomorrow I will go with you to your school so you can get a work permit. I imagine your grades have suffered a bit."

  "But, Honored Elder?"

  "Yes?"

  "The cure?"  
  "I've already administered it. You'll be back to full capacity in just under three hours."

  Akane blinked. She hadn't even seen the old woman move! "Will I ever learn to be that fast?" she wondered out loud.

  "You will learn many things. Your mind is free now, and the chains it has worn have served to strengthen it. Just be sure not to squander this opportunity."

  Akane nodded, smiling. She could feel it now, like a fog slowly lifting from her mind. Like static she hadn't even realized was there fading into a clear picture. She didn't need Ranma. If he and Nabiki wanted to screw in a city street then that was their business. Akane was finally through for real. Besides, Ranma didn't deserve her. She was Tendo Akane. 

  She was Amazon.

~~~~~[END]~~~~~

AN: In case you're wondering about the title and/or about Copycat's inside joke, it all revolves around knowing that "fetch" is another name for a doppelganger, or a creature that mimics people and then kills them. I always planned on having Copycat Ken in this fic. I wasn't satisfied with the ending of the episode, and really there's no character that I know of with more of an identity crisis. Seeing as he was able to turn himself into a perfect copy of Happosai, someone much smaller than his normal form, I figure the blanket he uses is more than just illusion. 

Slowly but surely the fic is approaching the main arc. Believe it or not, it actually centers on Nodoka, and she should finally make an appearance in the next chapter. Unless my idea monster rears its complicated head again of course.

Many thanks to Figment, Bastet's Chosen, and Aondehafka for their help with this chapter and to The Wanderer and the people at the FFML for helping with a technical problem.

Feedback greatly appreciated.

It gets weirder.


	7. I, Ranma

Thyself Known Ch.7: I, Ranma By Zorknot 

**Disclaimer**: Ranma1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and her cohorts.

**What Has Come Before:** Ranma and Nabiki's mind meld caused them to exchange weaknesses as well as strengths, as evidenced by the fact that they were recently featured on the six o'clock news, screwing each other's brains out and making wild cat noises. Now they are both in prison for exposing themselves, but its been a day and they haven't been let out yet. Turns out Detective Inamura has some questions to ask regarding the death of a friend of Nabiki's, Tomo Hoko.

Ch.7

_"Has he lost his mind? Can he see or is he blind? Can he walk at all, Or if he moves will he fall? Is he alive or dead? Has he thoughts within his head? We'll just pass him there why should we even care"_  
-Black Sabbath

dream

Ranma is a cat. A leopard or panther or something equally fierce. He paces back and forth behind the bars of his cage as people pass by. His mate, Nabiki is watching with a bored expression. She begins to lick herself. Shampoo, the other female is in the other corner of the cage. She will not attempt to mate again for some time.

There is a noise. The door to the cage is opening. There in the entryway stands a human female. She laughs covering her mouth with the back of her hand "OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!"

She flings out a ribbon. It wraps around Shampoo's throat. "This one will look good on my wall!" She pulls and the head comes off.

Ranma lunges at the girl but a smaller cage comes down around him from the ceiling and he bangs against the bars brutally but to no avail. "You're mine, Ranma-sama," the girl says. "Mine and no one else's"

"No one's" She wraps her ribbon around Nabiki's throat. She laughs.

reality

Ranma woke up in a cold sweat. He had that feeling again that his dream meant something. That it foretold the future somehow. It was different this time, but most of it was the same. Kodachi killing someone he loved, and him powerless to stop it.

Someone he loved. He had loved Akane, he still did a little, but now, he was madly in love with Nabiki.

I'm such a hypocrite, Ranma thought as he lay on the top bunk of his prison cell, staring at the dim fluorescent light of the ceiling. Until yesterday, he hadn't had any feelings at all for Nabiki, and now...He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. He had spent a year saying that he didn't want a fiancée...that he wasn't ready. But after she intercepted him yesterday in that intersection, and kept him from going after Shampoo... He wanted to marry her right now, ready or not.

It wasn't just the sex, though that had been awesome; it was...well, she was literally a part of him, and he of her, but that didn't describe it well enough somehow. At any rate, he was now sure that at least two parts of the legion of personalities he carried with him were in love with Nabiki: the Nekoken and his "base" personality, the one he seemed to come back to all the time.

Ranma sat up and gazed at the white metal bars of his cell. They had kept him here an awfully long time. The guy with the sunglasses said it would only be for a few hours, but that was yesterday afternoon. Ranma really didn't mind too much. He kind of enjoyed the peace and quiet, and had used the time for training and meditation.

He stretched his legs idly on the bunk. He was wearing gray prison clothes now, as his Chinese shirt and pants weren't functional as clothing when he was arrested. The material was kind of scratchy and stiff. Okay for now, but he would be changing back into his silk Chinese outfit as soon as possible.

It was strange, though... He would have thought that a prison would be noisier. And weren't they supposed to serve food? Ranma's stomach growled in agreement. Still, Ranma had been in far worse places than this. It was wondering what had happened to Nabiki that really made him want out of here.

Looking at the bars and remembering the level of security in the hallways, he had already come up with seven different ways of escaping, two of which would only take some five minutes, and one of which could be accomplished without much effort at all, and that wouldn't even really be illegal.

Nodding to himself, Ranma decided to go for this last one. He closed his eyes and thought of buying ice cream, of beating up Happosai, of cooking, of... being pretty. He thought of little things...the way people looked at her, the way people did things for her...the way she could do things for other people...if only they weren't so violent...

Ranma felt her body change from male to female as she thought of feminine things…

She went a little too far.

"Oh dear!" Ranma exclaimed out loud as she was filled with revulsion at the memories she now had. "Nabiki's just a good friend! I would never..." But she did, or rather he did.

It helped to make the distinction. That crass boy was not her. If it hadn't been for Genma, none of that would have happened.

Ranma blushed a little, realizing that she couldn't bring herself to regret the memory, and now all of a sudden she felt like thanking her father. She shook her head. She was not a lesbian. It was a valuable experience, and she would be able to use it when it came time for her to please her husband maybe, but she wanted a family with children and neighbors and afternoon tea, just like when she was young and she and Akane would play in the yard, and Mom and Dad were still together...

She'd never have that if she were a lesbian. Besides, there were plenty of handsome men around. Ranma wondered idly if she'd be able to tear their clothes off with as much vigor as Nabiki had shown with her male counterpart... She blushed a little deeper at that.

It was really a revelation to her though...apparently some men were actually attracted to strong women. She had thought for so long that a woman had to be quiet and submissive in order to attract a man. "Maybe I should be more like Nabiki," Ranma considered aloud. In truth, she was a little jealous of Nabiki, so powerful and yet so undeniably feminine...

What was she doing? Ranma wanted to know. She was suddenly worried. What if something happened to her?

"I gotta get out of here." Ranma murmured to herself and stopped her line of thought as she noticed the changeover of her personalities from uber femme hit on the head Ranma to normal everyday female Ranma.

"Woah. I don't know if I'm ever going to get used to that...kind of hope I don't really..."

She jumped off the bunk, her bare feet landing on the cold concrete. Shoes were always a problem. The moment someone invented truly adjustable footwear, Ranma planned on buying it in bulk. Again she stopped herself. She would only need to do that if she planned on keeping her girl form. Do I really want to get rid of the curse? she asked herself, as she had in the past. And now it seemed stupid. It wasn't even a curse really anymore. The only reason she was a girl at all was so she could see Nabiki again.

Ranma reflected on recent events while she rolled up the sleeves of her prison shirt and made cuffs in her pants. Really, ever since she did that mind merge with Nabiki things had been going so much better. She hadn't even had to use those earrings...

The earrings that were now somewhere in the streets of Nerima, getting run over by countless vehicles and pedestrians...

Ranma slapped her forehead chuckling, "Dammit why didn't I think of that when I was having hot sex in the middle of the city?" She wasn't really concerned. Still, she'd ask Tofu about it when she got out. First things first...

"Excuse me… Mr. Warden sir?" she called out sweetly to the somewhat gaunt looking man in uniform down the hall.

The hall, Ranma realized with a start, seemed quite a bit longer than she remembered. Idly looking up, she couldn't find the ceiling. Just pale green, flickering fluorescent lights that seemed to float above the floor. She blinked, shook her head and tried to look again, but there was no change. Probably just a weird optical illusion, Ranma told herself, not quite believing it.

The warden sauntered lazily toward Ranma's cell. He had a strange gait, keeping his left leg completely straight and swinging it around his other foot to progress a step. His face reminded Ranma of Gosunkugi, only with a rakish, toothless grin added to the already sickening countenance. "What can I help you with?" he asked with a good helping of sarcasm.

This was giving Ranma the creeps but she stuck to her plan, "As you can see, there's been some kind of mistake. This is a prison for guys, and I'm a girl. Could you please let me out?"

The warden smiled. "So...you're a girl now, are you, Ranma? That's nice. I wonder what your pussy tastes like?"

"Excuse me?" Ranma backed away. This guy knew her? And apparently he had a perversion that didn't just end with inanimate objects. "Who are you?"

The warden laughed and it sounded like the engine of an antiquated diesel trying to start. Then he shove a spindly arm through the bars of the cell snatching at Ranma, "I feel you. Feel you come undone. Like a present. Like string. You flow. Flow into different molds, different worlds You burn white hot liquid fire!"

Ranma backed farther away, her back touching the bowl of the sink behind her. She wished she could use the Tobu Sennuki she came up with yesterday on the creep but she didn't have the soul of ice going, and after what it did to Happosai, what if it killed the guy? She looked around for things she could use to attack the man through the bars. She swallowed and tried to calm herself. It was just an old guy with a limp. She could take him no problem...but he gave her the creeps. "Listen, man, I don't know what your problem is. I just...I haven't had my phone call yet. Can I get my phone call?"

"No phones in Hell! No phones in Hell!" he screeched. Then he grabbed the bars with his hands and laughed his carburetor laugh. "I've been here so long waiting for a way out. Waiting for you! And here you are all wrapped in a pretty package. I am the master of this space. I am...Iron man."

Ranma guffawed before she could stop herself. "Iron man? What kind of name is that? You play too many videogames or something?"

The bars that the warden held started to glow. Ranma felt intense heat wash over her, and she had to shield her eyes against the light. Suddenly she felt a terrible pain in her gut, a pain that increased exponentially as she felt herself lifted up and pinned to the glass of the mirror above the sink. She smelled something burning. Flesh. Cloth. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness enough to see the cackling face of the warden, his arm now ending in long sharp spear that impaled her stomach.

Smoke curled around her head and the weight of her body pushed her down, the hot metal cutting up her torso like butter melting on a knife. She couldn't scream, it was too painful. Too much. She saw spots in her vision...the room grew darker.

"That's it, pretty one. Pass out. Let me inside that body of yours. Let me escape into the world of men..."

Ranma snapped her eyes open. If she passed out this bastard would kill her. She was probably dead anyway but...she had to keep going... if only just to see Nabiki one last time. "Nabiki..." Ranma wheezed out, a wisp of smoke coming out of her mouth.

Nabiki was startled into a standing position out of her chair in the interrogation room, jingling the links of her handcuffs.

"Sit back down, Tendo. You aren't leaving here until I get some answers," Detective Inamura ordered. His eyes burned with a fire Nabiki had never seen before in the man's eyes. His aura, Nabiki noted, was a deep purple. It darkened and brightened in flashes, like a bladed weapon wielded in the light.

One of Nabiki's closest contacts was Inamura's daughter Yuki, and so Nabiki had met the man a few times before. He had seemed positively silly then, although he had a rather macabre sense of humor. Now though...She almost sat down again without thinking, compelled by the intense glare of the goateed man's eyes.

It was however Nabiki's custom to resist another's strength when she encountered it, and remained standing, defiantly. "Ranma...where is he?"

"I told you already, he ran off. He wasn't in his cell this morning and he hasn't contacted your family. Now please, Tendo, sit and explain to me again how it is that your fingerprints are all over what's left of Tomo Hoko."

Nabiki gritted her teeth and sat. "Detective, you know I wouldn't hurt Hoko. We've been to your house. Your daughter is a friend of mine and so was Hoko. Ranma isn't the kind of person who would run away from something like this. I've got to see him. You can tail me if you want, but I have to get out of here or..."

"You aren't leaving this room, Tendo. I know you didn't do it. But you know something you're not telling me, and that makes me wonder."

Nabiki had known as soon as she had seen Hoko at Tofu's that something had gone terribly wrong. Hoko's aura had been normal on the surface, but underneath it...almost imperceptible was this terrible flickering blackness. Nabiki thought at first that maybe Hoko was having problems at home or that maybe her sickness earlier that morning was some kind of curse, and if it hadn't been for Shampoo showing up and chasing after Ranma she might have looked into it. But now, after Detective Inamura showed her the gruesome pictures of Hoko's body parts, she knew exactly what happened.

It was then that Nabiki first found that Ranma was missing. She had wanted to talk with him about it, wanted to see what he would say, needed to really. But he had apparently escaped his cell and was no where to be found. It just didn't make sense...

Something had killed Hoko and was now pretending to be her. Nabiki wanted to grieve. She wanted to cry, but it was too much to take in. The cold darkness overtook her. It was worse than ever. She didn't just want death, she wanted to crush throats, to expose entrails, to tear apart bones and suck the marrow. She bit her hand, trying to stop having the images parade through her head.

Her teeth drew blood before she could regain composure. So ironic. Thinking of death used to give her composure...

She came to some rather unpleasant conclusions as she gathered her thoughts in the restroom of the police station. First, by announcing that Hoko was dead, the police had probably lost their best chance of finding the killer. The bastard would surely change bodies and then there'd be no way of knowing who he, she or it would show up as.

Second, Nabiki would have to be extremely careful what information she gave to the police. The killer could be one of them, and if she revealed that she could detect who it was, then it would only be a matter of time before she was the next victim.

The police would not be able to solve this. It was up to her.

Which brought her to her present predicament. She was holding back something. And while she had an excellent poker face, there was no getting past Detective Inamura.

Normally she'd suffer through the interrogation, and manage to provide an alibi and a viable reason for her apparent lack of cooperation, but now she had a terrible feeling...a certainty really. Ranma was in danger. Ranma was dying.

Even though she knew the fastest way out of the room was to calm down and give the detective some semblance of what he wanted, she couldn't do that now. She was thinking through desperate escape plans...maybe she could throw a chair through the silvered observation window on the wall, jump through...

An officer came in with a cup of coffee. It was officer 542, Kawagami Hiro. The man who had helped save her life.

She still couldn't quite get over that one. She had died, and any doubt about that fact was countered by bright patterns of energy she could now see around every living thing around her. Kawagami's eyes were blue, she noticed. His sunglasses were in his breast pocket of his white uniform shirt. There was nothing abnormal about the aura at first, but Nabiki looked closer...and there it was.

A dark flickering, behind the visible pattern.

Inamura accepted the coffee with a grumbled out "thanks," took a sip without letting it cool at all, and set it down on the table.

"Is there anything else I can help with?" Kawagami asked.

"Just let me know if anything new turns up in the investigation," Inamura said gruffly.

"Of course. Sorry to disturb you," the blue-eyed man smiled and turned to leave.

After Kawagami shut the door, Inamura's brow furrowed as he noted Nabiki's expression. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Tendo. What's wrong with you?"

Nabiki got a hold of herself. She was finding it harder to keep her emotions from showing since the mind meld with Ranma. She really wasn't sure if that was really a bad thing or not, but she couldn't afford to be read so easily in these circumstances. "I need to make my phone call," she said. "Now."

Inamura nodded slowly. "I suppose that'd be a good idea."

The real Kawagami Hiro was, of course, tied up in Hoko's closet, catatonic from the sleeping pills Copycat had found in Tomo-san's medicine cabinet, and would stay that way until he was sure that Nabiki was in jail and hopefully Ranma along with her as an accomplice. He chuckled as he returned to his desk in the precinct and organized some papers to make it look like he was working. Soon it would be a simple matter of taking a prisoner's body and organizing a trap for the hapless pigtailed boy and then he'd finally have his vengeance.

And then what? Once he's dead...what will I do?

Copycat shook his head free of the thought. Killing Ranma was all that mattered. After that, he'd be free.

This was the first time he had ever incapacitated a real police officer for a disguise. He did it in desperation when he saw the cop come to the door of the Tomo residence yesterday. He surmised immediately why the cop was there and as soon as Copycat, in the guise of Hoko Tomo, opened the door and the cop entered the house, he struck a pressure point at the base of the cop's skull and the man collapsed predictably to the floor.

Force feeding him sleeping pills while he was unconscious was more difficult, but Copycat wasn't the squeamish sort and so he had just opened Hiro's mouth and used his finger to shove them down the throat. Tomo-san was in the backyard attending her flowers while Copycat dragged the tall muscular body into Hoko's room and shoved him into the closet. Then, after telling Tomo-san that he was going to go see Nabiki and might be staying over, he took a picture of Hiro with his cursed camera to get his personality and appearance down, tied him, gagged him, used the blanket to change into him and left.

Now Copycat wondered why he hadn't taken over a cop's life before. He was learning so much about police procedure. He had made so many stupid mistakes; he would have never made it without the cursed blanket. But he was still in a dangerous situation until he was sure the search for Hoko's killer was over. Sure he could escape if he absolutely had to, but then he'd have to find another way to get close to Ranma and that could take months, and they might be watching for him.

He was a little worried about Tomo-san finding the cop. It'd been a day now, and while Copycat had checked on him in his Hoko disguise, a lot of things could have happened while he was away.

Copycat actually jumped when the phone on Hiro's desk rang. He smiled at his own nervousness. It had been a long time since he was this excited. He was so close! But he had to be careful.

On the third ring he picked up the receiver. "Nerima Prefecture Police Station. Officer Kawagami speaking."

The voice on the other end was strong, clear, and yet unmistakably feminine. It was Tendo Nabiki. "What do you want?" she asked. It seemed emotionless... almost robotic, but Copycat fancied he heard a trace of desperation all the same.

After a pause he answered, "I want what every cop wants, lady. Justice" Copycat smiled. He should have been upset that Nabiki found him out, but for some reason he was actually glad.

"Justice? Against whom? For what?" Copycat closed his eyes, imagining Nabiki's face as she asked the questions...so calm...so composed. If he could see her, would there be the slightest twitch of an eyebrow? A small disgusted sneer to the lips? Or would she just show her anger in her fierce burnt sienna eyes? Those pools of emotion that even her great control could never quite hide.

"He's gotten you too now hasn't he? All this time you've stood back, amused at all the girls who threw themselves at him, and now you're just another flunkie, no different from your homicidal sister, or the airheaded Amazon, or that pathetic codependent crossdressing caterer."

"This is about Ranma," Nabiki said simply.

"Yes, I gather you know the perpetrator then? The identity thief? The soul stealer?"

"That sounds more like your department." There was a definite tone of acidity in her response.

"Hoko knew exactly who she was when she died. When you killed her. You know what she said when she looked up from her stabbed stomach and saw your face looking down at her?" Copycat was speaking in hushed tones now, his voice barely above a murmur, "She said she understood. She understood, Tendo. Will you be able to say that if you died right now?"

"You want to kill Ranma."

"Don't you? You used to be so sure of yourself. Now you don't even know what you want anymore, do you?"

"You won't be able to kill him in prison. He'll just escape and leave the country, and then you won't be able to get near him."

Copycat winced. She was right.- Hadn't he already done just that? In a day no less. "True, that is a setback, but I'll find a way."

"I can help you. I can give you the chance you need to kill him."

"What?" he almost yelled out the question.

"You heard me. I just want a few things in return..."

"No. You can't fool me, Tendo. You love him. This is some sort of trick."

"No trick. I can supply all the resources you need and can get you closer to him than anyone else. Of course I can't do that if I'm in prison."

"What is your proposal?"

"The police are looking for Hoko's killer. Right now all the signs point to me and I'll likely be stuck in jail at least until there can be a trial. But Hoko isn't necessarily dead, is she? If she were to show up, then the arm and torso would have to be an elaborate fake. The police would spin their wheels for a little while trying to find out what happened, but in that time you could have your chance with Ranma."

Copycat forced himself to be cautious. "How can I be sure you won't just point me out as the killer as soon as I show up as Hoko?"

"You could always say the dead Hoko was trying to kill YOU. Tofu will confirm that you are the real thing and at that point no one would believe me even if I did say something."

"This chance...you'll let me have any means at your disposal? You won't obstruct me in any way?"

"Not at all. You have my word."

"And the moment I get the slightest idea that your word is worthless, that is the moment you die. You understand that, right?"

"Of course."

Copycat stood up behind Kawagami's desk with the receiver to his ear, not bothering to hide the wide grin that plastered his face. "Then, Tendo, I believe we have a deal."

Nabiki put the receiver of the pay phone back onto its cradle and shuddered. She was not the religious sort, still she prayed to the gods that she was doing the right thing. All she knew was that Ranma was in trouble NOW...that she had to get to him NOW and that an unsure danger later was at best a secondary concern. Not only that, but this way she would know exactly who the doppelganger was. Still, she had just agreed to become pals with Hoko's killer, and while there was something to be said for keeping enemies close, this seemed to be taking it a bit too far.

Was there any other option? Maybe. But she couldn't see it now. Every other thought was a voice screaming at her to move, to run. She had to struggle not to knock down the officer that watched her and make a break for it, even knowing that unless she had the power to bend metal and burst through concrete, which she didn't, she wouldn't get far before they managed to detain her. It was so frustrating knowing so many of Ranma's moves, but lacking the strength and poise to make them effective.

The conversation on the phone had exhausted her, but still her heart raced. Hardly realizing she had entered again, Nabiki found herself in the interrogation room once more.

Inamura's dark brow furrowed. "I've never seen you this nervous, Tendo. I've never seen you nervous at all. What's bothering you?"

"I need to see Ranma. He's in trouble," Nabiki said without thinking. It was only then that it occurred to her that it was odd that she would be able to know that. And that made her wonder just how it was she expected to help him.

"Do you think the killer might be after him? Is that it?"

"Yes. No..." Nabiki mind needed to rest, to recuperate from that conversation, "it's a long story."

"Why don't you tell it to me, Tendo. Is your lawyer coming?"

"Something like that. Ranma's in trouble, Detective. Isn't there any way you can let me out?"

"I'm afraid not, Tendo. But if you tell us where he is we'll be happy to..."

"You can't do anything! He hasn't left his cell. He's still there, only...Detective, believe me, I respect your profession, but there are things in this world that are completely beyond your jurisdiction and this is one of them."

Inamura leaned back in his chair. "So," he pulled out a cigarette from his pack and lit it. He took a puff and blew the smoke out of his nostrils before turning his head once more to Nabiki. "You're saying that Ranma is trapped in some sort of alternate reality and that you're the only one that can save him."

Nabiki squelched her urge to reach across the table and strangle the goateed man. She looked into his eyes stonily and said, "Yes. That is exactly what I'm saying."

Inamura studied Nabiki's expression for a good minute and took another pull off his cigarette. He held it with all four fingers and his thumb as if it were a joint. He looked up at the fluorescent light and blew out the smoke. He lowered his gaze to Nabiki again. "And Hoko Tomo?"

"Killed by a doppelganger that's going to come into the police station in an hour or so looking exactly like her."

"So in other words, the reason your fingerprints are on Hoko's arm is that this...doppleganger...was using a perfect copy of your body while disposing of her?"

"Yes."

Another pull off the cigarette, and Inamura asked, "You're aware of how inane this is right?"

"Regardless, it is the truth."

Inamura stubbed the cigarette directly on the table, since there was no ashtray. "How old do you think I am, Tendo?"

"I mean you no disrespect, Detective I'm only..."

"How old?" Inamura interrupted Nabiki.

"You're at least as old as my father. I don't see..."

"I'm fifty-seven years old, Tendo. And guess where I've been living all this time."

Nabiki just remained silent.

"Nerima, born and raised. And yet you, a seventeen-  
year-old slip of a girl think that you know more about what's going on than I do."

"You knew?"

"In the real world, people don't hit their heads and forget all about police procedure. And Kawagami would never be in here without his sunglasses on. His eyes are sensitive to the light. Calling him was very dangerous, and now things aren't going to go as easy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, of course we had your conversation tapped. I have to say, Tendo that was pretty stupid what you did. Extremely dangerous, lying outright to someone like that. You could get killed. Of course we'll be watching now, but still. You're walking a thin line. A real thin line."

"Wait a minute. You're saying you knew it was a doppelganger all a long?"

"The M.O. matched that of another body part found about a year ago. A Tanaka Buntaro. If we went on fingerprints or DNA we'd have had to conclude it was a suicide, but even if the kid was talented enough to manage sawing his own arms and legs off, the wounds were post mortem; so either Buntaro had an evil twin that his mother didn't know about, or there was some kind of doppelganger loose. We had a similar incident back in '75 when Dark Sombrero the Mexican mad scientist created an android that could duplicate human forms. Thankfully we found some pop idols and dressed them in sexy robot suits and were able to stop the problem."

"Why are you joking around! Ranma's in danger!"

Inamura shrugged "You have nothing to worry about. The only transdimensional demon we have here is Airanman and someone has to have a serious mental disorder in order for him to be any threat."

Stifling her throttle reflex, Nabiki said, "Ranma is going through something called the Ijuu. He isn't the same person from one minute to the next. Does that count as a serious mental disorder?"

"Crap." Inamura hurried behind Nabiki and unlocked her cuffs. They fell off her wrists and rattled to the floor. Then he unholstered his pistol, cocked it and pointed the barrel to the ceiling. "We don't have much time."

Inamura explained as he and Nabiki hurried through the corridors of the police station. "The precinct exists in a quantum irregularity. Time gets distorted more and more as you approach the jail and often we get dimensional crossover. It can get pretty nasty, but if we take the right path I can get you to Ranma before whatever's happening starts to happen."

"Don't you have any larger weapons?" Nabiki asked.

"Just 'ole reliable here." Inamura waved his pistol, but Nabiki's growing sense of imminent doom made it seem terribly inadequate. "Won't need anything else. The only way to beat Airanman is through force of will. Don't think there's a weapon around that'll dent that guy."

"Then what's the gun for?"

"For your boyfriend, in case Airanman takes control of him."

"You can't shoot him! He didn't do anything!"

"Look, Tendo, I'll try to help out if I can, but I suggest you think of some pretty words to say to your fiancé, cause this might be the last time you see him alive."

The pain wouldn't stop. It grew. It seemed to be trying to cover Ranma's entire body. Something else was happening too...something was telling Ranma who she was. She wanted to fight back to stop the pain but...

You don't want it to stop. You like pain. You like the hot searing fleshiness of it. You're a girl. A little whore. Your name is Airanko. You like it when people hit you. You like it when people hurt you. The more they hurt you the more they love you. See how much I'm hurting you. You're my little bitch. My painsickle. My vessel...

"No..." Ranma tried, "Nabiki..." the pain subsided somewhat, but that was worse. Ranma wanted it. It made her feel complete...the pain...

What you had with Nabiki wasn't real. It was a wet dream nothing more. You cannot expect Nabiki to drop everything to marry you. What have you to offer her? Martial Arts? Please. She's destined for greatness while you're destined for street fights. You'll have your fling maybe. She'll use you for a while and then you'll be discarded. Just like your mother discarded you. Just like your father discarded you. Just like Akane...

She felt the pain growing, filling her, flowing around her.

I'm going to surround you. I'm going to make you impenetrable.. You'll never feel the torture of love again. You'll have me, my little death doll, forever, and you will never need anyone else again.

"Yes..." Airanko whispered and she felt the liquid metal encompass her as it started to cool. The pain was positively sweet now. And it would all be over soon.

"No!" A clear alto voice rang out. It was familiar to Airanko but... Oh no! The pain! The pain was leaving!

"Go away! Go away whoever you are!" she screamed. She wanted the pain back. The beautiful pain that made her numb...

"Ranma, it's Nabiki."

"My name's not Ranma, it's Airanko!"

"No. You are Saotome Ranma. You are the heir to the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts. You saved my life and now you're my fiancé...the one I love. I name you. I claim you. You're mine, Saotome, and I'm not letting you go. So hurry up and kick this guy's ass."

A flash. Airanko felt the metal recede further. "No! He gives me pain. I need pain. Must have pain. I feel so numb...so numb."

"Ranma...if it's pain you're looking for, wait till we're married. I'll make you're life a living hell."

"Promise?" Airanko asked.

There was a pause.

See? She can't give you what you need. Only I can. She'll throw you away like scrap. I will mold you into something new and shiny and sharp. You'll have more pain than all your little friends could ever give. You'll be immortal, my little injury queen, and your screams will make the earth melt and the heavens burn away.

Nabiki's voice came through again though. It was dark and cold. "Ranma, what the fuck does that thing know about pain?"

Airanko frowned. The pain was ebbing, and this was a new exquisite pain. Airanman didn't seem to understand. He was trying to get her to take him back in but he didn't understand. Nabiki...Nabiki could take everything Airanman told her and multiply it by ten. Getting hurt by Nabiki would be worse than any burn, any fracture, any laceration. Because it would be from her.

Ranma shook her head free of the smoke. She grimaced. "Get the fuck off of me, you creep!" she yelled.

And confronted with the force of Ranma's new-found will Airanman nearly did exactly that. But he rallied forth one last ditch effort and lunged, screaming like metal across metal, "NOOOO!"

Ranma's eyes widened as she felt the searing hot liquid metal pass once again into her stomach... felt it somehow against her back. "I am not your BITCH!" Ranma screamed and Airanman was blown away into the bars of the cell opposite Ranma's.

Ranma slid down the wall, and passed out.

Akane sneezed.

Cologne opened her eyes and glanced in Akane's direction. "Someone talking about you?"

"I guess," She was sitting with the Amazon elder in the office of the assistant principle, who was fishing some papers out of Principle Kuno's office and so would probably be a while in coming back. She rubbed her nose and moved to a different position in her seat. For some reason she thought of waiting outside of the classroom with Ranma, holding buckets of water, and she felt like crying again.

"Last night was hard for you," Cologne observed, "I'm glad. If you showed up bright eyed and cheerful I would have been worried."

"I just..." Akane tried, but there was no easy way to crystallize the shame into words. Every time she thought she had finally reached emotional rock bottom she thought of some other terrible thing she'd said or done to Ranma and it drove her deeper into the dirt. "We could have...but the fiancée stuff and then Shampoo..." she spoke the name with more venom then she intended. She wanted to blame her for everything, but she resisted. Even if Shampoo was to blame for Akane being unable to learn how deal with Ranma, it was still Akane that had mocked Ranma, jeered at him, attacked his greatest weakness with a gusto that was sickening. And there was no way she could make up for that now. She once... had something with Ranma. There was... love there once, but now... Could they even be friends? How could he ever trust her again? How could she trust herself?

The family was getting ready to see Ranma and Nabiki in jail when Akane left home with Cologne to get here. She could barely face her father and Kasumi, she knew seeing Nabiki or Ranma was completely out of the question. She had done too much to even begin to ask for forgiveness. And what made it worse was knowing they would give it to her if she asked. They would forgive her when she had blamed them for everything.

Becoming Amazon was the only thing that kept Akane from losing it all together. She had a new chance now. A new code of honor she could adhere to after she had shattered her old one. She would not let herself be weak. She would not fuck this up.

Cologne nodded. "It's over now. It's good that you realize that. And Shampoo deserves your vengeance. But if you want to stand a chance in challenging her, you must have patience. You are entering a period where learning will come very easily and patience will be difficult to maintain. That is why you must learn patience now. Reckless knowledge is as potentially disastrous as reckless ignorance."

Akane closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. Patience. That was why they were both in this office, waiting for the assistant principal to return instead of helping him find the necessary forms so she could work at the Nekohanten while attending school. Akane could only imagine what sort of booby traps the Hawaiian madman might have set up, and it could very well be that the assistant principal was unconscious underneath a pile of coconuts or something. She knew it would be faster to go herself and get the papers, but she would stay. As maddening as it was, she would sit and think. And she thought about all the times where sitting and thinking would have done her so much good.

And she felt like crying again.

Ukyo had never seen so many customers. They just kept coming in! Ukyo was making three okonomiyaki at once and still she was working non stop. She knew what it was of course, but she didn't want to think about it too much. Her new room mate was more than paying for herself already. In fact, Shampoo was almost too good of a waitress.

Ukyo had evened out Shampoo's shortened hair for her and she looked cute in the Ucchan's uniform. Ukyo herself didn't swing that way, but she had spent enough time in a boy's school to know what guys liked, and Shampoo was it. She could kid herself that she was cuter, but it was a conceit that didn't stand up to scrutiny. If it weren't for the fact that Ranma liked tomboy types, Ukyo wouldn't have a chance.

That sneaky bitch Nabiki...

Ukyo flipped an okonomiyaki too soon and the batter spattered on her hand, burning her skin. "Fuck." Ukyo seethed, and she tried to get the image of Nabiki doing just that to poor innocent, defenseless Ranma in a city intersection while helicopters flew over head... out of her troubled mind. They were still showing it on the news at regular intervals with all the naughty bits blurred by computers.

But of course Ranma wasn't innocent. Anybody could see he was participating just as much as Nabiki. It just wasn't fair.

Ukyo focused on the okonomiyaki. She envisioned pouring all of her negative energy into the batter letting it all go into the mix. When she finished her next okonomiyaki, she felt a lot better. She wouldn't want to serve it to anyone though. It simply wasn't ethical to serve an okonomiyaki that wasn't made with love. Taking a short break without letting Shampoo know, Ukyo took the okonomiyaki with her out the back door to the yard outside. She threw it Frisbee-like into the thick trunk of a large deciduous tree. She wasn't exactly surprised when it exploded, but when the tree toppled over, Ukyo knew it was time to close for the day.

She was getting too many ideas.

"Unnnh..." Ranma moaned, holding a hand to her head just above her right eye. "Did anyone get the number of that …?"

"Over-used cliché?" Nabiki finished for him. She sat crosslegged in a plastic chair in the recovery room. She put down the latest issue of Forbes and tsked. "You're a bit high maintenance, aren't you, Ranma?"

"Huh?"

"I mean I'm just after free food and money, but you, you expect to be rescued from sado-masochistic demons from the fifth dimension, and on the second date no less!" Ranma sat up and Nabiki helped her to her feet. "Daddy and Kasumi are here, having a worrying contest. So far Daddy's winning with his trademark waterfall of tears, but Kasumi may be a dark horse candidate with her incessant hand wringing ."

"What about Pops?"

"Oh he came by, but then he said he had to leave. Family business, he said."

"Well, sheesh, you're family, why couldn't he tell you?" Ranma felt odd. Her balance was a little off and she felt strangely numb. She could feel things but she couldn't really FEEL them.

Nabiki kissed Ranma. She felt THAT.

"What was that for? Not that I'm complaining."

"I don't know. I haven't been myself lately. So many things have happened I haven't even really assimilated and then you…It feels good to be part of your family, Ranma. I don't know why, but it does."

Ranma found herself rising to meet Nabiki's lips again. When she was done she frowned, "Why are Daddy and... I mean why are your father and Kasumi worried about me?"

Nabiki smirked "They saw us having intimate sexual relations on live television while we were both acting like cats. More recently they found out while in jail I was six feet away from a raging demon that almost killed you. Daddy is beginning to think I'm standing a little too close to the fire," Nabiki nudged Ranma. "Kasumi, well...she's just Kasumi."

Ranma nodded.

The next second a wooden door with a square window opened and Kasumi came in. "Oh my," she said.

Ranma and Nabiki gave themselves a quizzical look. "What's up, Kasumi?" Ranma asked.

"We don't have much time. Father will be back soon. I need to talk to you both."

"Okaaay…what about?" Nabiki asked.

"It's rather difficult to explain I'm afraid. Ranma-  
chan, do you still have the Saiserefu Noon?"

"Ah…heh, heh," Ranma scratched the back of her head, "I kind of lost it when Nabiki and I were…"

"Hmm yes," Kasumi interrupted, "Please, I want you to think. When exactly was the last time you wore it?"

"The earrings kind of just fell out after I did that mind meld with Nabiki"

Kasumi nodded. She turned away from them and looked through the window of the door, checking the hallway.

"What is it, Kasumi?" Nabiki asked."

Turning to face them both again, Kasumi wrung her hands and said, "Ranma, Nabiki, I want you to promise me something. Ranma you're family now too and I think you respect our family more than your original one. So I want both of you to swear on the honor of our departed mother."

Ranma and Nabiki swallowed. "Swear what exactly?" Nabiki asked.

"Don't ever leave each other's side."

"I swear," Ranma said solemnly

"Nabiki?" Kasumi asked.

"Of course I swear, but why the theatrics, Kasumi? We weren't planning on being apart anyway."

"I think something about the… mindmeld caused the Saiserefu to move from Ranma's earrings to you. You are now Ranma's Thyself Known."

Nabiki nodded slowly."That would explain how I knew what to do when Ranma was fighting Airanman,"

"That's not all I'm afraid. I think it goes both ways. Nabiki, Ranma is your Saiserefu just as much as you are Ranma's. As long as you two are together you'll be perfectly fine. But if you're apart for very long, I'm afraid your personality may fracture just as badly as Ranma's has."

"How romantic," Nabiki deadpanned.

"Hold on a second," Ranma interjected, "How do you know this, Kasumi?"

Kasumi's brow furrowed. She checked the hallway again. "Father mustn't find out. It's too dangerous to tell you everything. When Tofu was fifteen, he lost something precious…a part of himself. I had to give him part of myself or he would have died. I was nine then. You were seven, Nabiki."

"That was when mom…"

Kasumi nodded somberly. "Remember I had pneumonia that month?"

"It wasn't pneumonia, was it."

"No." Kasumi checked the hallway again.

"So you and Tofu did a mind meld too?" Ranma asked, "But I thought you had to be identical twins or something?"

"It wasn't the same thing. It can last a decade, maybe fifteen years and then…"

"Death?"

Kasumi nodded, "'The two will become one.' Tofu and I had our own Ijuu. We too were our own Thyself Knowns, but for us, in order to stay ourselves we had to stay apart. I'm just starting to remember everything that happened. Tofu must be remembering too. We're…we're running out of time…" she wiped a tear from her cheek.

Ranma found herself standing up and putting an arm around Kasumi before she even realized it. She sat Kasumi down in one of the chairs and sat next to her. "We'll find a way to fix this. There has to be something we can do."

It was then she noticed that she was holding Nabiki's hand even as she was comforting Kasumi with the other. She realized she had said "we" twice. Not "I" but "we". And she knew then that whatever it was she was going to do, she was going to do it with Nabiki.

When Hiro Kawagami woke, his entire body felt like fruitcake. His eyelids were particularly heavy fruitcakes, the kind passed around for generations. When he finally got them open the sandpaper sensation the air from the dank closet provided made him close them again promptly.

His stomach was angry at him about something, it kept trying to throttle him, but thankfully all it succeeded in doing was forcing the warm, chunky remains of the hot dog and coffee he had some twenty hours ago at the Hot Dog and Coffee out of his burning esophagus past his epiglottis and all over the hard wood floor by his head. The vomit stank a great deal.

He managed to get into a sitting position, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but his inner ear mistook this as an attempt to do a back flip off world's fastest rollercoaster right after the third loop. His stomach tried to throttle him again, and in the midst of all this violence, he fell over, his shoulder splatting in the puddle of vomit, which had become cool but no less fragrant for the two or three minutes he had spent trying to sit up.

A minute or so passed as Kawagami lay there thinking of vomit flavored fruitcake. There were a lot of fruitcakes in Nerima he mentally segued. Maybe getting tied up, shoved into a closet and drugged was a normal thing. He wasn't getting paid enough if that was the case.

He was just about to try sitting up again when the closet door opened almost blinding him for a moment with the light from outside.

"Morning, sunshine," his own voice taunted at him. "Well it's two in the afternoon actually, but who the fuck gives a shit."

"What do you want?" Kawagami groaned.

"Revenge. No wait. That's not it. Satisfaction. If it were just revenge, I'd just let the Ijuu take its toll on the bastard and watch him fall apart. That'd be eye for an eye. No, I want the fucker dead. Him and his bitch."

"You mean Ranma and Nabiki?"

"No, I mean the Pope and the Queen of England. Of course Ranma and Nabiki!"

Still recovering from his stupor, Kawagami said "Come on, the Pope and the Queen of England have nothing to do with each other."

The figure seemed to ignore him. "They bought you some time. I was going to kill you chop you into bits and spread your remains across the countryside, make a day trip out of it, see the sights. Now that plan's fucked. The bitch is giving me a way to get close to her manwhore. Of course it's not going to go down like she thinks. She thinks I'm going to go galavanting in there screaming 'I'm alive! Please arrest me!' But I've got an idea."

"I suppose you're going to tell it to me, huh? I thought evil masterminds only did that in movies."

"Yes, I'm telling you the plan, because you're going to make it work."

"Yeah well I'm not going to help you so you might as well think up a new one."

Kawagami's eyes had adjusted enough to see the smirk on the doppelganger's face. Then the fetch waved some dark cloth across his field of vision. It was like his entire body were taffy being pulled and compressed and molded. He felt extremely odd.

"You're going to help me, or you'll never be Kawagami Hiro again."

" What do you—" Kawagami started, but then he stopped. That was not his voice. Much too high. That was…that was…

"Get up, Tomo Hoko, I'm taking you to the police station. Inamura's going to have a lot questions to ask, but I'm sure between the two of us we can set him straight, don't you think?"

Author's Note

Okay. It's been a long time since I did a chapter on this. I'm sorry to have left you hanging with that last, but there were several problems I had with the politics of the police station and such. I'm sure someone will catch some glaring error and I'll have to go back and change something, but for now this is the chapter.

I suppose I have to face facts, the plot point that I'm planning between Ranma and his mother has been irrevocably sublimated by everything else. I'll eventually get to it, but not before a hundred other things happen, and that's likely to take a very long time. I'm in Grad School now and I'm working on several original fiction works and so chapters are going to come even slower. I only finished this because several people emailed me about it.

Anyway I do plan on continuing this, and I thank you for bearing with me as time slogs forward like a forwardly slogging thing.

It gets weirder.

7/15/05 : Added Ranma's dream. Made some other changes.

Thanks, Abdiel, for critiquing

And thanks as well to the reviewers of


	8. Stuck

Thyself Known

Ch.8: Stuck

A Ranma 1/2 fanfiction by Zorknot

**DISCLAIMER:**_PSSSHHHT!_ This is officer 542 we have an unauthorized use of an artist's characters, please advise, over.

_PSHHHT!_ Does the author have a disclaimer? Over.

_PSHHHT! _That's an affirmative on the presence of a disclaimer, Over.

_PSHHHT!_ Does it try to be funny or otherwise downplay the fact that what the author is doing is essentially illegal? Over.

_PSHHHT! _Afirmative. Over.

_PSHHHT! _Book the bastard, over.

_PSHHHT! _Youkai, Over and out.

_PSHHHT! _Be advised this is a Ranma fanfic and not an Inuyasha fanfic, though both were created by Rumiko Takahashi. Over and out.

**WHAT HAS COME BEFORE**:

Ranma and Nabiki were arrested for having sex in public. While in jail, Ranma had an encounter with a trans-dimensional demon calling itself Iron Man. Nabiki saved him by promising to cause him more pain than he could possibly imagine. Meanwhile Copycat, having disguised himself as officer Kawagami Hiro and having disguised officer Kawagami Hiro as a dead eighteen-year-old girl, now prepares to make his entrance to the police station, having worked a deal with Nabiki to get close to Ranma so he can kill him. Nabiki expects she'll be able to control the situation and get the serial killer doppelganger arrested. This isn't going to go how anyone expects.

**Reviewers whose advice I've taken (I think):**

Abdie (wwwdotfloresticadotcom/abdiel/indexdothtm)

Innortal (wwwdotfanfictiondotnet/u/681915/)

-----ch.8:Stuck-----

"He longed to forget himself altogether, to forget everything and then to wake up and begin life anew…"

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

-----11 years ago-----

She walked through the twilight, a terrible beast that left homes broken and ragged in her wake. She was many stories tall with bloody obsidian spikes that jutted out two or three feet from her knees and elbows. Her skin was pus colored, her eyes pure black, her hair made up of maggots. Smoke curled from her mouth and nostrils. Acid dripped from her vagina.

"Get inside." Tofu's father told him and his mother. The hair of the man, already graying at 45, blew in an unnatural wind as he stood on the porch of their home. "Did you hear me? I said get inside! Now!"

"I have to perform the ritual!" Tofu's mother cried in protest amid the increasing rush of wind. At forty, she still retained much of her beauty. She was tall and graceful as the wind whipped her hair and the folds of her dress. She cradled a great grimoire against her chest. "It's our only hope!"

"No. That's a last resort. I can see its ki patterns. If I can get close enough, I should be able to disable it."

"Get close to it? She'll rip you to shreds!"

"It wants me," Tofu said, his young, timid voice almost too quiet to hear over the rush of wind. "This is my fight." Before his parents could protest, he let his thoughts turn black. He raised his hand, palm outstretched, as even now he was cloaked in a dark aura. He was too late to save his friends, but if he had the power to give life, then he had the power to take it away.

"NO, Son! That's what she wants! She…"

But Tofu didn't hear the rest of his father's words. Everything became a blur.

There was movement, cries of surprise, of pain. He felt something snap. He heard his mother say the words of a prayer: _"Oh goddess Amateresu, of both unearthly beauty and unparalleled strength. Hear my cry. You have granted me beauty and I am grateful, but, please, take it away. Take it away and replace it with the strength to defeat my enemy."_

There was a tingle of magic, like static electricity across the skin. A scream. Words of anger, words of hate. And finally another, more terrible scream, of something inhuman. A loud crash. Then the words: _"I am defeated, widow, but know that the same curse that has slain me, has also slain your son."_ The words were raspy and had a feminine tone. They came though, from Tofu's throat.

-----the present-----

"Ono-sensei?'

Tofu jerked awake from the makeshift desk he had made in one of the spare examination rooms of the hospital. He was often called upon for special cases, having developed something of a reputation. The hospital paid him discreetly for his services, but could not officially hire him for political reasons. Tofu accepted this and had even enjoyed his "office away from his office" on the occasions when he worked for the main hospital. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night however and the lull while he waited for the results of Ranma's tests proved too much for him.

He had nodded off. Tofu recovered as best he could. "Yes? Oh. You have the x-rays ready?"

The young woman nodded. She was only a year younger than Tofu, but still only a med student. "There seems to be some form of metal melted in an asymmetric ring around the ninth thoracic vertebra. I don't suppose you could tell me how that happened?"

"Not without severely damaging your understanding of the laws of physics, I'm afraid," Tofu smiled tiredly, "At this point in your education it's best just to assume the universe behaves like it's supposed to. After you get your PhD, if they haven't drained you of all curiosity, you can look me up and I'll tell you all about it."

"I'll have to take you up on that, Doctor. Anyway, here you go." She handed him the manila envelope with the x-rays. "The blood work will be a little longer."

"Thanks…" Tofu read the girl's nametag, "Yamaguchi-san, this should be fine for now. The blood work was just an extra precaution."

The girl smiled, bowed slightly, said "Well then! I'll leave you to your work," and left the doorway rather quickly.

As Tofu studied the x-rays, it slowly dawned on him that the girl was probably flirting with him. He tried to recall if she was attractive and found he couldn't remember what she looked like. He shook his head free of it. He was committed to Kasumi, and that meant he was effectively celibate until…

Another realization rose slowly out of the murky waters of his thoughts. His dream…was no dream. Eleven years ago, he had killed his father, forced his mother to sacrifice her beauty, and had been cursed to die a slow and painful death. Only Kasumi…she was only nine years old but she came to him on his death bead, laid her hands on his chest and somehow filled the cold emptiness that had been inside him with something warm and bright.

He wasn't supposed to remember this. The memories were supposed to be sealed off until…

Until Tofu had need of them again. Until he began the Migration anew. Tofu could now count himself, as well as Kasumi if his suspicions were correct, among those Ranma's Ijuu had taken. Where would Ranma lead them?

Tofu rubbed his eyes. _One crisis at a time_, he counseled himself. Right now he had to figure out how to tell Ranma this new bit of bad news without him inadvertently blowing away a wing of the hospital in a blind rage. After he did that, THEN he could start to worry about whether the boy was leading everyone he knew into certain doom.

-----waiting room-----

Everyone except Akane and Genma was sitting in the waiting room when Tofu entered. His eyes fell on Kasumi, and he paused. So beautiful. She had saved his life that day eleven years ago. He remembered now and wished he didn't. "The two shall become one" That was the wording. What did that mean? Would he or Kasumi die? Would they merge somehow? Would that be different from death?

Tofu shook his head. There was still time for him and Kasumi. What he had to tell Ranma was more urgent. "Ranma?" He called from the doorway.

The redhead looked up, "Yeah?"

"Could I talk to you alone for a second?"

"Sure." Ranma got up and was halfway to the door when she stopped and glanced back "Hey Firefly, you coming or what?"

Nabiki snapped back from some reverie she was in, and Tofu saw the reason for Ranma's nickname. Her aura went from nothing to bright green and then back again. _She stifles her ki. Doesn't even realize she's doing it. _When they both got through the door Tofu smiled, "I did say that I wanted to talk to you alone, Ranma, but this is probably better."

"Yeah, well what is it?"

"I talked with the doctor here and I had a good look at your X-ray. By all accounts you should be dead."

"Huh?"

"You say molten iron shot from this demon into your chest?"

"That's what happened, I was there too," Nabiki confirmed.

"Yet you seem to be fine. Not even a scar or burn mark."

"Detective Inamura said that Airanman could only be defeated by force of will. I think the molten iron was just an illusion," Nabiki pointed out.

"Yeah," Ranma agreed, "It's extremely painful, but once you realize it doesn't exist you can fight through it."

Tofu grimaced. "I'm afraid the molten iron is going to have a good TRY at existing."

"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked.

Tofu pulled a transparency out of a manila folder. "This is Ranma's X-ray." He held it up to the light so they could both see. "Look here, about the second vertebra down from the rib cage." Where Tofu pointed, there was an uneven ring of pure white. Something the X-rays couldn't pass through at all.

"That's iron, isn't it," Ranma said flatly.

"Not quite. I agree with you and Nabiki that it couldn't just be iron. The way it's shaped is wrong for molten metal flowing around an obstruction for one thing. Nevertheless, while whatever this Airanman did to you may have had an illusory characteristic, it was at least partially real."

"That would explain why my balance has been off since I woke up."

"Yes, but there are some other things you might not have considered, Ranma. If an enemy of yours gets a hold of a high powered magnet you could be in serious trouble. You won't be able to pass through metal detectors if you need to go through an airport or high security area. But these are minor compared to what I'm about to tell you."

"What is it, doc? I'm getting sick of this."

"Ranma…women's vertebrae are on average twenty to twenty-five percent smaller than men's after taking differences in size into account. It's one of the reasons why women are more at risk for osteoporosis. This metal is wrapped tightly around your vertebra now when you are female. What happens if you turn male?"

"Wait a minute, this isn't a normal metal. Maybe if he turns male again it will just grow to fit the new body."

Ranma shook her head. "No, Nabiki, the bastard wanted me female. He got off on it, he wanted me to be his 'death doll'. If you hadn't shown up…" Ranma's fists clenched.

Tofu sucked in a breath. The aura wasn't too excited or dark; Ranma was taking the news surprisingly well…but he could still be very close to dying horribly right now. "It's possible there wouldn't be a problem, it's true," Tofu allowed, "But if I'm right about this, and what Ranma has just said makes me think that I am, then turning male could paralyze him for life. I've treated him enough to know his injuries carry over when he changes forms."

This wasn't exactly true, Tofu reflected. In fact most minor injuries seemed to heal as soon as Ranma changed forms, but Tofu decided against mentioning this. Major injuries did carry over, and if Ranma became paralyzed it might push him over the edge. And if Ranma went over the edge he'd drag everyone else with him.

"Fine," Nabiki said, "So how do we remove it?"

Tofu had no response for that. He could feel Ranma's aura changing, becoming darker.

"It's metal melted around my spinal chord. They're not going to be able to fix that. You're the one who said I should get used to being a girl, Nabiki. Guess now I don't have a choice." Ranma turned and started walking away.

Something was odd here, Tofu realized. Ranma was too quick to accept this. Almost as if he knew ahead of time. Come to think of it, why hadn't he tried to change earlier? _One problem at a time,_ Tofu reminded himself. As long as Ranma didn't change, he should be okay at least from a physical standpoint. Tofu thought of something though, just as he was about to turn around. "Ranma!" Tofu called out, "Your curse has changed. All you have to do is change your mood and you're male again. It's a miracle you haven't turned back already. How can you be sure that that won't happen now?"

Ranma stopped and faced Tofu from down the long hallway "Mom's coming to visit this week." Her eyes somehow intense and dead at the same time. "I'm not going to be feeling 'manly' for a while." Then she turned and ran down the hall.

"Idiot," Nabiki said and started to rush toward Ranma.

Tofu stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Remember, Nabiki, Ranma has to remain female, or he…"

"Tofu-sensei," Nabiki interrupted, pulling his hand off her shoulder, "I understand you are trying to help. But if you _ever_ keep me from my fiance again, you will regret it."

Tofu let her go and she ran off down the hall. He could have sworn Nabiki's eyes flashed bright green for a split second before returning to their usual brown. _She is part of the migration now too._ It made perfect sense that she would be, after she and Ranma's mind melding and all. Still, the idea that Nabiki might eventually become one of the most powerful martial artists in the world and possibly play a key role in halting the spread of Armageddon was a bit hard to take.

Tofu's stomach gurgled wretchedly. He walked hurriedly down the hall, praying to the gods he had enough money to get an antacid from the snack machine. He grit his teeth. _One crisis at a time. First keep my stomach acid from digesting me from the inside, THEN worry about the fate of the world resting in the hands of a few impetuous teenagers._

-----women's restroom-----

Nabiki opened the door. Ranma was sitting on the tiled floor, her back against the wall next to the sink, her head was between her knees. Nabiki heard a sob. _It's not fair._

Nabiki sat down next to the redhead. She looked up at the fluorescent lights in the ceiling and sighed. "It's not supposed to be fair, Ranchan. It's like a poker game with the odds stacked against you. Sometimes you have to play dirty. Sometimes you have to know when to fold."

"I suck at poker."

Nabiki smiled slightly. "Don't sell yourself short, Ranma-baby. You got me in there with you now."

"Heh. Yeah, I suppose." Ranma looked away brushing moisture from her eyes.

Nabiki frowned. She didn't like this side of Ranma. Ranma never cried unless he was under some sort of magic compulsion.

"Don't worry, Fly, I'll probably be insanely happy in a couple minutes," Ranma said dryly. "I don't like this either, you know."

Nabiki paused. She was sure she hadn't said anything. "You're not the only one having a bad day, Ranchan." Nabiki

"I found out earlier today that my best friend Hoko died. A doppelganger took her body and killed her. We saw the killer yesterday at Tofu's. I thought something was odd about her but…" Nabiki sucked in air. _Great, now _I _feel like crying._

"Why don't you?" Ranma asked.

"What?"

"Cry. I mean, you're a girl, you don't need to hold yourself back or anything. I haven't even seen you really upset. I know you get depressed sometimes. I remember the…the gun. I just don't get why you hide it."

"Daddy cries all the time, and he's a man. He wasn't worth much after Mom died. I had to find ways to pay the bills, to keep us from starving. There was a time I really hated him. I didn't want to be anything like him. I still don't. Now that I don't have to rely on him, I don't hate him anymore, but every time I think of breaking down and crying, I think of him sitting alone in his room all day, doing just that while the food and money ran out and everything was falling apart." Nabiki leaned back against the cold tile of the bathroom wall. "Crying doesn't solve anything. It just makes things worse."

Nabiki looked at Ranma, tears drying on the shorter girl's face. _I don't deserve to be a man._ "The only thing worse than crying is self pity," Nabiki said sharply and looked away.

"Hoko wanted to be a reporter, you know. That was her dream. She was head of the school paper. I read it every once in a while. Some of the articles were really good. There was one she wrote about a possible match up between Ms Satori and Mr. Otonabe. It was all very innocent, but she made it sound scandalous, like they were doing something naughty. Well of course I wanted her in charge of information retrieval.

"I had the inside scoop on what Akane, Kuno, and later on, you were up to, and that's what everyone was interested in. But Hoko, she knew everything about _everybody_. She was my edge in the betting pools. With her and Yuki, I could do almost anything. And at first, yes, I was just using them, but then I found myself doing things for them, things that weren't financially lucrative, and they would help me out if one of my nastier schemes ever surfaced. I think one day Hoko said something like 'We're your friends, you can tell us,' and that's really when it dawned on me. Yuki and I drifted somewhat since she became popular, but Hoko and I stayed close. She was my best friend."

Nabiki turned to Ranma, who was listening intently. "She was my best friend, and this bastard killed her."

"I had no idea. I didn't even think you had friends before we…"

"That's not all. There was this quiet kid in school, maybe you ran into him, Buntaro?"

Ranma shook her head.

"Probably did and didn't even realize it; He was so withdrawn. Then one day he starts asking people questions and taking pictures. That's when I first noticed him, really. I asked him what was going on, and he said 'family trouble.' I don't know why, but I asked if he wanted to do some work for me. He declined, which is already a little odd, but then he had this strange look of surprise and guilt on his face, and then he ran off. I did some more investigation and there was really nothing remarkable about him except his parents were getting a divorce. They seemed like nice people when I talked to them, though. A week later I was the only high school student at his funeral. It was just me, his parents and this weird police officer who asked how I knew Buntaro. I said something, I forget what, and the cop gave me the same look Buntaro gave. He didn't run away like Buntaro did, but it seemed like he wanted to. He just turned and walked off.

"Today I found out Buntaro was killed exactly the same way as Hoko. I'm positive the killer was the same person. And then there's Tanaka-sensei. About a month ago she disappeared. Just drove off without explanation."

"You think she was killed."

Nabiki nodded, "I'm almost sure of it."

"Gosunkugi! He disappeared just last week!"

"It could be unrelated, but…"

"Like hell it's unrelated. Damn it, Gos was a freaky guy but he didn't deserve _that._"

"Careful, Ranma."

"Huh?"

"You were about to change into a boy."

"Shit. I was, wasn't I?"

"Look, Ranchan, we've got different priorities now. Yes, you're stuck as a girl. Big deal, so am I. We have a killer to catch and we don't need a penis to do that."

Ranma's expression darkened. "You don't understand, do you? You've never had my curse, you don't have any memory that fits the feeling. This is not me, Nabiki. I am not a girl. I can't just give up and start wearing dresses and watching soap operas."

There was silence for a good while, and then Nabiki stood. "Okay. As much as I'd like to discuss this, we don't exactly have time to separate your ingrained chauvinism from your actual sexual identity. I think that would take years. The important thing right now is that for a while at least you _have_ to give up."

Ranma looked up sharply at her.

"Look, it won't be permanent. I know you're really a man, whatever that means, but you're a girl for now. So…be a girl."

"I don't think I can do that. Being a man is a part of me. I can't change that even if I wanted to."

"I know, Ranchan," Nabiki hugged Ranma awkwardly on the floor of restroom, "But just let it go. You have to let it go."

Nabiki hugged Ranma tightly for almost a minute. She felt as if she was being filled by something. Something warm and painful. It was almost like sex, but not quite. Something was off. She began to feel odd. Ranma seemed to shrink slightly in her arms. She opened her eyes saw the way Ranma's aura was behaving and realized what was happening after it was too late to do anything about it.

Nabiki released Ranma and stood up. She looked at herself in the mirror. She touched her face, felt her chest. It was no longer _her _face though, no longer _her_ chest. She didn't look like Ranma. She could recognize her own features, but they were more squared off, masculine. There was no getting around it. Nabiki was now male. "Damn it, Ranma," Nabiki said in her…in _his _now tenor voice. "That wasn't what I meant."

-----ucchan's-----

"That's not what I meant!" Ukyo exclaimed exasperated, "Just because I hate them doesn't mean I want to kill them!"

"Why not?" Shampoo asked. "Nabiki is obstacle, she is for killing then, yes? If Ranma no want to be Airen, he for killing too."

Everyone was gone from the restaurant and Shampoo and she were sitting on Ukyo's sofa upstairs. It was a bit threadbare, she had found it in a dump and never got around to replacing it, but it was homey in a way. Comfortable. Entirely not the place to be conspiring to murder anyone. "Shampoo, I can't believe you. You would actually take a human life, not just human life, but RANMA life over this?"

"You say hate, but you protect… Why?"

"I don't know! I do hate him. I hate him because I can't love him. I hate him because I can't really hate him either. But I don't want to kill him. Or Nabiki for that matter."

"Amazon law very clear on this subject," Shampoo noted.

"You're not an Amazon anymore, Shampoo. And anyway if you're so keen on killing them why don't you try it then?"

Shampoo slumped in her seat. "Is true. Amazon law very clear but Shampoo…my feeling not so clear. One reason why I not Amazon anymore. But maybe we could almost kill? Send to hospital for couple days? I feel much better then."

"THAT sounds tempting," Ukyo considered. She could understand where Shampoo was coming from. Shampoo had been unable to control herself as soon as she saw Ranma. She was angry at him for taking away her control, but then Nabiki comes in out of the blue and screws the only human she had any sexual attraction to. She had good reason to feel like killing them. Ukyo herself was angry for much more banal reasons. It wasn't fair for Nabiki to do what she did. Unlike Shampoo she knew exactly what she was doing. And Ranma….Ukyo felt betrayed. Again. "I don't know about almost killing them but I think we need to do _something_. Something violent, just to get it out of our systems."

"I no want get violence out of system. I like violence. I want get mercenary girl out of system."

"No, that's not what I mean. It's an expression. To get something out of your system means to satisfy your need for that something."

Shampoo frowned. "That no make sense. If I hungry and I eat, I no get food out of system, I put food in."

Ukyo thought about that for a moment. "I think in that situation, it's a little odd, but I think you would say 'I need to get this hunger out of my system.' It's only supposed to last a little while in most cases when you use the expression. Like when I exercise sometimes it's to get the stiffness out of my system." Ukyo frowned herself. None of the examples she could think of really fit.

"I think I see. It like you get rid of need but it come back. I get leaving Ranma out of system, but it no last. I get leaving old hag out of system but now I miss. I get leaving Amazons out of system but I still feel like Amazon inside. I feel good for while and then bad feelings come. It probably be same with almost killing Ranma and mercenary girl."

Ukyo nodded dumbly, wondering again at what kind of person Shampoo would have been if it hadn't been for her overbearing great grandmother. Shaking her head free of the re-appraisal of her one time foe, she said, "We should do this the right way. We'll issue a challenge. Ranma will probably win but we'll feel better for a while. Maybe."

Shampoo shook her head. "You challenge Ranma. I challenge mercenary girl."

"Huh? But she doesn't know martial arts."

"She know nekoken. She probably know other moves too, just not show all this time. I think she ten times better than Akane even if she not as strong."

Ukyo remembered running with Nabiki, how out of breath she was, but how determined. "She's out of shape, but you're right. How could she learn the nekoken and not be a martial artist?"

"She hide for many year, stay in background, but she just get abandoning Art out of system. She come back to it now."

Ukyo had never really thought about Nabiki before, the few times she had really interacted with her had been over Ranma or money. Usually both at the same time. Amidst all the craziness of Nerima, Nabiki seemed to be one of the few people really in control of the situation. But maybe that was because she was never really in the situation. She was Switzerland, a neutral party. Now she had chosen a side. Now she was in the war. _So what side am _I_ on? _Ukyo wondered, W_ho am I fighting?_

------tomo residence------

Hiro couldn't help staring at his now smaller, feminine arms and hands. There were other, more dramatic changes, but that was too much to handle right now. He felt out of synch with this body. It wasn't his, it didn't move like it was supposed to. He was still a man just some how forced to take on the form of this poor seventeen year old girl that got killed.

"Yeah. You're a teenage cunt now. Get over it. We've got to go." The imposter sneered in Hiro's stolen body.

_You have to stop him._

But how was he going to stop him? _Take his blanket and camera away and capture him. Either that or kill him._ Hiro blinked, what camera? He didn't know anything about a camera.

"Hoko-chan?" Mrs. Tomo called out. "Is that you? I was about to call the police…" Tomo-san entered the room to find what looked like a young cop in police blues in her daughter's room with someone who looked like her daughter dressed in designer jeans and a red short sleeved blouse. "Oh," she said, completely unaware that the "cop" was a shape shifting serial killer and her "daughter" was in fact a traffic cop who had moved to Nerima because of its low (reported) crime rate and reputation for quirkiness.

_Yeah, quirky. You try watching from a spiritual limbo while your lifeless body is hacked apart by a deranged lunatic and see how quirky it seems then._

Hiro closed his eyes and took a breath. He was not hearing voices. It was just nerves. Being transmogrified probably did a lot to a man's system.

"I'm very sorry, Tomo-san," the freak in cop's clothing bowed to Hoko's mother, "I should have called. Hoko here was a witness to a very serious crime. She's a bit shaken up. I thought I'd bring her here before I took her to the police department for questioning. Maybe you'd like to come with us?"

Mrs. Tomo nodded. "Let me just call my husband. He's coming home early tonight and he'll be worried if Hoko and I aren't here."

_NO! Mom can't come with us, he'll kill her! _

Hiro was still not hearing voices, but the voice he wasn't hearing seemed to have a point. "Um…Mom?" Hiro tried, "maybe you should stay home? This should ah…only take a moment, and then I'll be back."

Mrs. Tomo paused in mid-dial. "It would be better if I could get some food in him when he comes in. Kenta's a real bear when he hasn't eaten," she explained to the imposter officer. "Are you sure you're okay?" She asked Hiro.

"Yes ma'am" he responded, and it was odd that this standard cop's response worked just as well for a teenaged daughter. Same polite form, different levels of social class. Then again maybe there was something more to it. Maybe every time a cop arrests a perp, he's really arresting his own father or mother. _Yeah, or maybe you're just retarded._

"Okay, honey. I'll let you go by yourself. But I want to hear everything when you get back, okay?"

"Okay."

Hiro felt some indescribable area of his consciousness relax slightly, and suddenly he knew the voice he had been hearing was Hoko. -_A brilliant deduction, Inspector Obvious.-_

Now that he had made the connection, the voice was more distinct and separate from his own thoughts. He could catch more of the sound of it and even a vague sense of the gestures that Hoko would use if she were physically present. It was a little like talking to a good friend on the phone, except he had never met Hoko.

"I'll have her back in a jiffy, Tomo-san" the imposter said and let Hiro out with a firm grip on Hoko's thin shoulder. Hiro gained some solace from that. It was Hoko's shoulder, not his. He felt deflated, weak. Where he was supposed to have muscle was just skin and bone. His voice had none of the rumbling cadence it once carried. His body was stolen, but he would get it back. Hiro glared up at the…creature wearing his face. He'd get his body back, and then he'd take great pleasure in making sure this thing was dead.

-_I guess we're on the same page there at least. But it's not just you and me. Copycat, that's what this freak calls himself, has killed four people including me and he'll keep killing until he gets his revenge on Ranma.- _Hiro and Copycat were in the garage now. Copycat was opening the garage door.

-_What did Ranma do to him?-_ Hiro thought back at Hoko's voice.

-_This guy used to be called Copycat Ken. He used to have a normal form that he would always go back to, but then in a fight with Ranma he overused that cloth of his and lost track of…well… himself. Now he wants to get back at Ranma for making him lose his identity. That's about all I know. I remember Nabiki mentioned him a couple months ago, but at the time she seemed to think it was just a harmless challenger-._

The garage door was raised almost to the roof, revealing the mid-afternoon sun. Hiro shielded his eyes against the glare. Copycat, for his part, didn't seem to mind the sun at all. "You don't need to worry about your eyes anymore, dumbass. They're different…now?"

Copycat grabbed Hiro's teenage girl chin and looked at his eyes. "What the fuck? You're eyes are blue! They're supposed to be brown. How the hell…It doesn't matter. Get on the bike I'll think of something on the way…"

Hiro stood defiantly.

"Or maybe you'd like to stay in that body forever? Get a move on, bitch, I want this thing over with."

"Wouldn't it be better to take the police bike?"

"Well, gee, I _would_ but _you_ said that _your_ bike would be faster and you could get home quicker, didn't you, Hoko?"

_-The creep just wants to try out my wheels.- _Hoko's voice grumbled.

Hiro got on the bike and Copycat sat in front of him. After a few revs of the engine, a slyly smiling Copycat wearing Hiro's body sped out of the Tomo family garage. Hiro had to squint his eyes almost shut against the brightness of the day.

-----hospital-----

Ranma giggled.

This was so great! "Never gonna be a boy again! Never gonna be a boy again!" she sing-songed softly to herself as she followed Nabiki back to the waiting room. Poor Nabiki though, he'd have to deal with being a boy now. He was handsome enough that the girls would start fighting over him soon if they didn't get married right away.

All her life this was what she longed for. Not to be a girl exactly but to be free of having to be a man. Of having to be manly all the time. It was all so stupid she realized now, the things she did. Rising to her father's taunts when she could have just called him an idiot and ignored him. The nekoken training would have never happened if she hadn't been trying to be so manly. But then again neither would Jusenkyo, and then she'd still be a stupid boy.

The itch, that terrible feeling of wrongness she usually felt when she was a girl, wasn't there now. If anything she felt more in tune with her body than ever. She could only hope she could stay like this forever. She could even deal with Mom now, she thought. As long as there wasn't any chance of her being a boy again she could be her niece, maybe even her daughter eventually if Ranma ever found a way to reveal the truth to her.

She'd have to go as Ranko from now on, she realized. She still didn't care for the name. She was still a boy before when she first used it, and did a lot of stupid boy things under that alias. Maybe she could get a middle name. Something sweet and graceful like Yuki or Tomie. In the meantime though she'd be Ranko. Maybe she would learn to like it.

Ranko wondered which personality she was at the moment. She wasn't quite the girl she first became when she hit her head, and she certainly wasn't her original self. Some combination maybe? It didn't really matter.

Detective Inamura intercepted Ranko in the hall. He was standing with a short, flabby, uniformed man with a patch over the left eye. Nabiki stopped and turned around to see what was up. "Hello, Ranma is it?"

Ranko nodded.

"Could you tell me where to find Nabiki? We need her back at the station."

Ranko pointed at Nabiki. "He's right there, detective," she said brightly.

"Huh?" the goateed man said intelligently.

"I'm Nabiki Tendo," Nabiki said, "Sorry about this."

Ranko couldn't help it. She burst out laughing.

"That's what you said, isn't it?" Nabiki's eyes widened, "When you first came…"

But she was still laughing.

"Ranko, it wasn't that funny." Nabiki growled.

"I thought her name was Ranma, " Inamura said.

Nabiki frowned. _Why did I call her Ranko?_ "That's the name she uses when she's a girl." Nabiki explained to Inamura.

Why _did_ Nabiki call her Ranko, Ranko wondered. Ranko also wondered how it was that she knew that Nabiki wondered why she called Ranko Ranko. She had to swallow and count to ten to stifle the new urge to giggle at the absurdity of it all.

"Listen, we kind of need to reveal our…predicament to our family, and I'm not sure how long that will take. I should be there in maybe half an hour?"

Inamura shook his head. "The doppelganger and Hiro are on their way right now."

"How do you know that?" Nabiki asked.

Inamura gestured to the short, flabby, uniformed man with the patch. "Sergeant Suzuki here is keeping an eye on them."

Sergeant Suzuki tapped the edge of his eye patch.

Nabiki grimaced. "I still have to let them know what's happened. I'll get out of there as soon as possible though."

Inamura nodded.

When they got back to the waiting room everyone was there, except Genma and Akane. Ranko realized she missed them. Akane's insults yesterday hadn't really been all that bad. In fact they had been accurate. Ranko _was_ a girlie girl. It was still a little mean, because of course at the time she had been sensitive about that, but really it was no worse than the terrible things _Ranma _ had said to Akane. Uncute. Tomboy. Unsexy. It's a wonder Akane had taken it as long as she had.

Ranko made a mental note to be sure and apologize to Akane as soon as possible, before the poor girl did something stupid like pick a fight with the other fiancees or try to join the Amazons to improve her self esteem.

-----furinkan high school, vice principal's office-----

Akane heard a loud crash come from the hallway, followed by what sounded like an avalanche of pineapples. Either that or coconuts. Then again bananas were in season right now…

"Couldn't we just-" Akane started.

"No, child,"

Cologne

said, "let the man do his job"

"But if he's hurt…"

"He'll survive."

Akane was beginning to go insane.

"Patience, child,"

Cologne advised, with a hint of malevolence in her smile. "It's only been an hour."

Akane groaned. This had to be some adaptation of Chinese water torture. Only without the water.

There was another sound of heavy blunt objects falling.

Maybe this was Chinese pineapple torture.

-----parking lot-----

Copycat dismounted from Hoko's bike. He was having second and third thoughts about this plan. He should just find someone else to copy and escape while he still could. But he had worked so hard finding Hoko and preparing to strike with her. If it wasn't for the damn ijuu taking Ranma when it did…

But there was nothing he could do about it now. Besides, he got a new technique out of the deal. Copycat smiled, thinking of the surprise that would be on his arch nemesis's face when he used the nekoken against him. First thing's first though. He had to get himself out of this mess.

Hiro got off Hoko's bike slowly, sullenly. The cop in Hoko's body seemed resigned to HER fate. That was good. But why hadn't the eyes changed? Was the demon blanket losing some of its power? Or was there something special about Hiro that Copycat hadn't picked up on?

"Get moving, bitch, the show's about to start," Copycat said, dismissing his misgivings and shoving Hiro in the back toward the station with his foot, almost knocking the neo-girl over. Whatever was going to happen, it would happen soon.

-----nerima pd-----

In the police department, Nabiki was feeling out of sorts He had told his father what happened with him and Ranko in the bathroom. When the inevitable wailing ensued, he had been prepared to completely ignore it and leave the room, but Ranko…she sat next to him, put an arm around him and said that she and Nabiki would figure it all out. He thought it was completely stupid at the time. Didn't she know his father was just going to blubber on no matter what? But then Nabiki had stopped his train of thought and wondered: _When did I stop loving my father?_

He didn't care about his father at all anymore. Before, even though he hadn't respected the man much, he still felt something for him, but now…It was Ranma's twisted sense of manhood, Nabiki realized. When Ranma hoisted it onto him, he lost all ability to empathize with anyone. Even Ranko seemed alien now to him. He couldn't figure her out, why she was so forgiving of everyone, so accommodating. Didn't she have an opinion? Wasn't she angry she had to be a girl?

The funny thing was Ranma had been like that before to a degree. Ranma had never held a grudge, had always made friends out of his enemies, but he had never been as pure about it as Ranko was now.

Nabiki felt sadness over his inability to feel, turn almost instantly into anger. He had to hit a wall with his fist to expel the emotion. It wasn't that he didn't feel, he realized. Somewhere inside him, he still loved his father, but he simply wasn't allowed to even admit it. Emotions were forbidden territory now. All of Nabiki's machinations, which as a girl had seemed mostly innocent, now were unforgivable. The joy he had experienced in seeing the conflicts within people sorting themselves out in a wash of fear had no analogue in his new worldview.

Nabiki knew now why Ranma was so depressed. Inextricably attached to his idea of manhood was this necessity to adhere to a sort of chronic stoicism. Emotion equals bad. And so no parfaits, no crying…no sex. There was only the Art. Nabiki realized he was going to have to start training seriously if he was going to survive. As it was, he was trying not to think of how worthless he felt with a body so out of shape. He felt this even when he knew the whole idea was complete baloney. Ranma had actually believed it.

Now Ranma, as Ranko, was free, and Nabiki was stuck.

Inamura led Nabiki and Ranko into his office. The police department was on the same block as the hospital so the trip from one to the other was faster than Nabiki would have liked. "They should be here any minute," Inamura warned. "Remember. I'm still holding you as a suspect in Hoko's murder. When the doppelganger comes in, you'll be exonerated but you'll have to pretend to be friends with it for who knows how long. Got it?"

Nabiki nodded.

"Okay then, turn back into a girl and we can get ready." Inamura began rummaging through his desk for a form.

"Uh…Detective?" Nabiki raised a finger.

"Yeah?" Inamura said bent over behind the desk.

"That's going to be a problem."

Inamura stood up. His eyes shifted from Nabiki to Ranko.

"Sorry, Inamura-sensei," Ranko bowed, "but Nabiki hasn't figured out how to change with his mind yet. Do you have any hot or cold water? That might help."

Inamura let out something between a sigh and a grumble. "We don't have time. We're just going to have to play it by ear."

"Is Kawagami-san going to be okay? The doppelganger copied his body last. He might be in danger."

"Don't worry about that," Inamura assured, "There's something special about officer Kawagami that I'm almost certain the doppelganger hasn't picked up on."

"What's that?" Nabiki asked.

"Before he came here, Hiro used to work homicide at a different precinct. He was young. The youngest cop working at homicide, but he was good. Perhaps a little too good…"

-----one year ago-----

"Fine." Detective Satou snapped, "Let wonderboy take a look at it. Might as well offer him my job while you're at it." Satou stormed off hand in the pockets of his trench coat, his balding head gleaming in the light from the single dangling incandescent bulb.

Kawagami grimaced. It wasn't fair. Satou had been at this for 20 years. Kawagami had only joined homicide last year. He shouldn't be this good. He didn't want to be this good. The old apartment complex, a slum really, was dark even with the bulb. The city was going to tear it down in a few weeks but the homeless had already found it in the time since it had been condemned and everywhere were signs of human life. Spray painted in black on one wall was "The world is dead" written in Chinese kanji. Kawagami had to remove his sunglasses to read this. He approached the yellow police tape where forensics experts were gathering evidence.

It was a teenage girl. A high school student. Her uniform in tatters around her bloody corpse. Her hands had been nailed into the wooden floorboards. Her feet as well, spread out so that the legs were almost in splits. This was the position she had been in when the killer raped her.

Kawagami was already about to excuse himself, to leave the room so he could vomit, but he saw the eyes. Unnaturally wide. The eyelids had been cut off. They shifted. The eyes shifted, so that they looked straight at him.

Suddenly he was in the ceiling looking down at the man who kidnapped the girl, brought her here. He wore a black rain slicker, latex gloves used for washing dishes. black rubber boots.

Kawagami could see every act the man performed. He heard every scream. Try as he might, he could not turn away. Finally he saw the man walk out of the room. Out of the building. Three blocks away to a dumpster where he threw away the gloves, the slicker, the boots. The man wore a business suit underneath. Just your average Japanese salaryman. He got in his car and drove off. Kawagami memorized the license plate.

Suddenly Kawagami was back in his body. Swallowing his gorge, he quietly asked a member of the forensics team to follow him. He put on his sunglasses and slowly walked out of the building to the dumpster. "The killer's rain coat, gloves and boots are in here." He said.

"How do you know that?"

Kawagami didn't have an answer for that. Thankfully the garbage truck hadn't come to the dumpster yet. The perpetrator was caught with the combination of the raingear with the girl's blood that fit him, the description that Kawagami gave based on his "analysis of the crime scene" and eyewitness accounts that put the man and the girl in the same general location at the right time. It wasn't really enough for a conviction, but the man confessed. He said he couldn't help it. That it was something inside him, that he couldn't control. He was glad he was finally caught so that it would never happen again.

Kawagami didn't believe a word of it.

The man had approached Kawagami in the hallway of the station supposedly to thank Kawagami for finding him. Kawagami threw a right cross into the man's eye.

Kawagami asked to be transferred that day.

-----the present-----

"The man's eye never healed," Inamura said. "It got worse and worse. The whole left side of his face rotted and fell off. A few weeks after Kawagami punched him, the killer was dead."

"Whoah." Ranma said, eyes wide, "I mean…Hiro's a good guy… right?"

Inamura nodded. "Officer Kawagami doesn't know it, but he is what we here in the Nerima precinct call a nekuromansa. An English word meaning death mage."

"What do people outside of the precinct call him?"

Inamura took a pull from his cigarette. "An urban legend."

-----nerima pd-----

_This shouldn't be happening_, Kawagami Hiro thought, _I'm just a normal guy_. _A traffic cop, for crying out loud!_

-_Welcome to Nerima,-_ Hoko's voice deadpanned.

The precinct was the same as ever. There were cops carrying in suspects, questioning suspects, rushing from one end of the building to another to get paperwork sent in, to get coffee. It wasn't all that different from a business office, except many of the people wore handcuffs and cursed a lot.

There in the back stood Inamura. His arms were crossed. A cigarette butt hanging out from the fingers of his hand. Next to him stood a red-headed girl in an orange shirt with the shoulders cut out and white shorts. Ranma. On the other side, a somewhat gangly young man with an odd helmet shaped haircut. He wore a black t-shirt and brown dogi pants. Nabiki?

-_Nabiki's pretty hot as a guy!- _Hoko enthused.

-_I liked her better as a girl.-_ Hiro might have been more freaked out at his love interests sudden sex change, but given his current predicament he was fresh out of surprise.

_-You would have never had a chance with her. You're too old. She'd use you for a few free dinners and gifts, but Nabiki likes boys who are younger than her. 'Naive, yet intelligent, and he has to be cute.' That's her idea of the perfect man._-

Manbiki said something to Inamura. Inamura nodded. Hiro felt a hand grip his now thin and weak shoulder forcibly. He wondered when exactly he had lost control over his life. Maybe he had never been in control.

"Hey, Inamura!" Copycat pushed Hiro toward the detective, "Look who I found. Turns out that arm was from some sort of clone that attacked Tomo-chan here. Really weird stuff."

"That's great." Inamura smiled

-_You know you'll probably never get your body back no matter what happens, right?- _Hoko's voice asked.

Hiro nodded.

"She's a real hellion, this one," Copycat kept talking, "You know she knocked me out and tied me up in her closet? Said she thought I was another clone."

"That so?" Inamura raised an eyebrow.

-_You know he'll kill again if he isn't stopped soon, right?-_

Hiro nodded again.

"Yeah, and when I finally convinced her I wasn't, did she go with me peacefully back to the station? No siree. She wouldn't hear anything of it. I finally convinced her to come by saying she could ride her own bike if she wanted."

Inamura smirked at Hiro, "I'm sorry you came here under duress. We just have to confirm you're still alive."

-_Where do you keep your gun?-_ Hoko asked.

Hiro took a breath. He kept his gun on his belt in a holster. This was risky.

He forced himself to smile with Hoko's unfamiliar facial muscles. "Rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated."

-_NOW!-_

Hiro turned in a whirl, unsnapped the holster on Copycat's belt, removed the gun while simultaneously disengaging the safety and blew a round into Copycat's chest.

Copycat fell to the floor. "You bitch!" he screamed, grabbing his shirt where a red stain was already growing large.

Someone kicked the gun out of Hiro's hand. Someone else pulled his arms behind him, applied handcuffs. Hiro didn't care just then. He was watching his body die. He would never be his true self again, but at least he had stopped a serial killer before he could kill again.

And then there was a fuzziness around Copycat. He pulled a large blanket out of thin air and covered himself.

"Release her!" Nabiki's male voice cried. "She's not the killer!"

When Copycat got up he looked as healthy as ever, and there was another gun in his holster. "You should have shot me in the head, you dumb fuck," he said and ran off, knocking down several agitated police officers along the way to the door.

"He's getting away!" Nabiki yelled, "Hurry!"

Hiro dimly noted that several people left in a rush. His hands were released from the handcuffs. Inamura stood in front of him. "You're too brave for your own damn good, Kawagami. We had the situation under control, and then you fucked it up."

"I didn't know… I thought…"

"You didn't think. You acted. If you were still in your old precinct that would have been fine, but you can't rely on your instincts all the time out here. Sometimes it's your instincts that'll get you killed." Inamura took a pull off his cigarette. "Sorry I wasn't there to give you the speech, but I'll give it to you now. Magic is real. Especially around here. That doesn't mean everything's rainbows and unicorns though. What that means is that evil doesn't always take a human form, and the human forms it does take have to be dealt with very carefully. Case in point, this doppelganger we're currently after. There is simply no way we can get this guy through standard police work. We have to make him think he's getting exactly what he wants and then spring a trap. Kind of hard to do if he's on the run, but we'll just have to change our tactics now."

"I should have shot him in the head."

"Yeah. You should have. Can't change the past though. At least not here. Have to go through cell block 4 to do that."

"What?"

"Nevermind. Let's get going," Inamura nodded his head to the side and started walking.

"Where…?"

"To the morgue. It's about time you found out who you really are."

-----parking lot------

Nabiki ran out of the door into the parking lot. The doppelganger was leaving on…on Hoko's bike! The bastard! He ran after him, but the freak was on the road, already out of his grasp. He had to find a vehicle quick. He looked around. There! A motorcycle. It didn't look like much but it should do…

"Nabiki, think this through, will ya?" Ranko stood in front of him, blocking his way. "You aren't a martial artist, you'll only get yourself killed!"

"Get out of my way Ranko, we don't have time for this."

"This isn't just some random fighter, Fly. This is someone who wants you dead. Do you hear me? Not beaten up a little, but dead."

"You're the one he wants dead, Ran."

"All the more reason not to go, because I'm going to go with you if you do."

Nabiki sat on the seat of the bike. "Then get on. We're losing time."

"This is crazy!"

"You don't understand. I have to do this"

"Why don't I understand? Because I'm a girl? You were a girl yourself just an hour ago. Would you have gone after this guy then? Let me answer for you. No you wouldn't. You would make a plan first, find a way to trick him into making a mistake, then truss him up like a Christmas turkey so the entire community can take turns whacking him into a bloody pulp."

"That was an hour ago, this is now. Get on the bike and shut up."

Ranko sat behind Nabiki. "Don't you need a key or something to turn this on?" she asked.

Nabiki stared at the empty ignition. No. There was a time to listen to reason. This wasn't it. He was not going to be stopped by this. He was leaving on this bike and there was no way anything was going to stop him. No fucking way.

The engine started.

Nabiki pulled out of the parking space and headed toward the street. Stopped for a moment waiting for traffic, Ranko spoke in his ear. "Nabiki? Just so you know…you're kind of glowing a little."

"Hold on," Nabiki said, and he merged and started to speed up.

Ranko held him closely about the waist, and he tried not notice her breasts against his back, or the way she just sort of _fit._ He had a killer to track down and he was determined not to fail in that. At the same time, he felt this bizarre contentment.

There just wasn't anything like facing certain death with your best girl by your side to make you feel like a man.

-----AUTHOR'S NOTE-----

5/25/06:

I changed a few things based on comments. And I made sure continuity was preserved. The next chapter should be up now.

7/21/05

This came out a little later than expected, due to some work that came up but still earlier than I thought at the end of chapter 7. Thanks to everyone who gave reviews and sent emails

The characters have now become hopelessly ooc. But then that's sort of the point of the fic, so it's not too bad. I should be able to rein them in some in the next chapter, but for the moment since Ranma and Nabiki have now changed mental genders as well as physical sex they're going to act a bit differently.

STRESS and nervous TENSION have now become serious problems throughout the galaxy, and it is order that this situation be in no way exacerbated that the following facts will be revealed in advance:

First Ranma and Nabiki will eventually be returned to the genders of their birth.

Second, Nabiki and Ranma will catch Copycat and fight with him.

Third, the fight will result in the exploding of a motorcycle, the bruising of someone's upper arm, and the spontaneous creation and subsequent demise of a small, red delicious apple.

In order that some mystery be retained, the identity of the person who sustains the bruise to the upper arm will remain a secret, however the (relative) safety of our heroes is absolutely assured. (apologies to the Douglas Adams estate:-))

Thanks for reading.

It gets weirder.


	9. Second Chances

An html version of this chapter(with all sorts of wonderful formatting extras) is available here:

http/www(dot)geocities(dot)com/zorukonotsu/tk9b(dot)htm

Some day fanfiction(dot)net will cease its hackneyed formatting restrictions and the wine will flow freely and we will all rejoice. Until that day, the website remains the best way to view this fic.

Thyself Known

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Zorknot

Ch.9: Second Chances

DISCLAIMER(sung to "the brady bunch")  
Here's the story of Rumiko Takahashi,  
Who liked to write about aquatransexuals  
As well as Kitty and Shogokukan  
Who made anime serials.  
They got together, birds of a feather  
And made a show and it did really well  
So if it could be, brought to America  
Maybe it'd really sell  
And so Viz video met with Rumiko & Co.  
And bought the distribution rights on a hunch  
That the group could somehow form a family  
That's the way they became the Ranma Bunch!  
(Characters and some situations property of the Ranma Bunch and not the author)

CREDITS:

Robert (http/members(dot)aol(dot)com/fanfic28/cwishmain(dot)html)  
Aondehafka (http/www(dot)florestica(dot)com/aondehafka/index(dot)htm)  
Edward (http/www(dot)concentric(dot)net/(squiggle)Easimons/)  
Nemesis Zero  
And a thanks is due to Gary Kleppe and Eternal Lost Lurker for pointing out the suckiness of the previous disclaimer.

WHAT HAS COME BEFORE: A whole bunch o' stuff. Here's the current situation: Nabiki is currently a male version of herself and has been infected with a highly exaggerated form of Ranma's masculine identity. Ranma has reverted to a highly exaggerated form of his feminine identity. They are trying to catch a doppelganger who killed four people, including Gosunkugi, and Nabiki's best friend Hoko.

Hiro Kawagami is a police officer who recently saved Nabiki's life. Copycat used his blanket to turn Hiro into a physical copy of Hoko, but Hiro has latent magical abilities which kept the eyes from changing color and which allow Hiro to talk with Hoko. Detective Inamura is Hiro's boss and friend, and also the father of Nabiki and Hoko's friend Ami. Nabiki and Hoko both think of Inamura as a kooky uncle.

-----Ch. 9: Second Chances-----

"But I cannot grow   
till you eat the last of me  
oh when will I be free  
and you, a parasite  
just find another host  
just another stool to post  
cause you, my tapeworm tells me what to do  
you!  
my tapeworm tells me where to go

Pull the tapeworm out of your ass…"

-System of a Down- Needles

-----an alley in nerima-----

Ranko tried to stop the tears, but they kept flowing hot, wet, and slow, like blood from a newly opened wound. The recently male Nabiki was driving the police motorcycle at unreal speeds, and Ranko sat behind him embracing her fiance's stomach as tightly as she comfortably could. She couldn't help noticing how little muscle he had. He was pretty well toned, but Nabiki wouldn't be able to take a well-placed hit from Akane, much less someone like Ryoga. The doppelganger they were chasing looked to be at Ryoga's level or greater based on how it moved. She couldn't let Nabiki face that much danger. Ranko would have to fight it. Alone.

The trouble was, she didn't want to fight anybody. She was sick of all the fighting. The fiancées, Ryoga, Akane, her father... she cared for them all and yet all she had ever done was fight them. It was stupid and she had known it for some time, even when she had been a boy. All she wanted to do now was stop all the pointless violence and start living life instead of attacking it. But now Nabiki was going after this murderer, this demon, and Ranko was the only one who could protect him.

Nabiki was acting just like Ranma would have. Charging into battle, thinking, KNOWING he would win. Ranko knew this, but all she could think of just then was that if she didn't do something, there was a very good chance Nabiki would die.

Ranko jerked forward into Nabiki's back as the motorcycle skidded to a halt in the alleyway. "FUCK!" Nabiki said.

"What?" Ranko asked, her voice wavering a little from the crying.

"I made a deal with him. Why the hell did I have to make a deal with him?"

"You're not making any sense." Ranko put her chin on Nabiki's shoulder, hugging him closer to her.

Nabiki glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "You're crying." It was almost an accusation.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. I'll be okay once we get there. I just..."

Nabiki's hands left the handlebars and held Ranko's arms across his waist. His hands were warm. Warm, but too soft. "We can't fight him. Not now. Later when we both aren't so screwed up, we'll kill the bastard, but not now."

"What is it?"

Nabiki closed his eyes, "When you were in prison and I was trying to get to you, I made a deal with the doppelganger to have him help me get away. It was stupid. Stupid and completely useless because Inamura-sensei let me go anyway after I explained to him what was going on. But I still made the deal. And now I can't break it."

Ranko was about to ask "Why not?" but then she felt what Nabiki was going through. All of the masculine pride that Ranma had unconsciously forced into Nabiki a couple hours ago was now screaming at Nabiki to follow his word, to uphold his honor. Ranko knew that sort of thinking was stupid. Even when she was Ranma she had been able to sacrifice honor to keep himself or someone else out of danger, but Nabiki no longer had a sense of prudence to combat his sense of honor. That had all been forced into Ranko.

Ranko took a shuddering breath and let it out. "What was the deal?" she asked.

"That I would at some time give him a chance to kill you without obstructing him in any way. It made sense at the time because I knew he had pretended to be Hoko and they were questioning me about her murder. If she came in, apparently alive, I could have left to save you and I would have found a way around the deal later. But then Inamura-sensei let me go before the doppelganger came in and it all got mixed up after that."

"Then we have to keep going."

Nabiki opened his eyes. "What?"

"I'm at my weakest right now. If there's any chance of you keeping your word it's now."

"Are you crazy? He'll kill you!"

Ranko snorted some mucus back up her nose and wiped the rest off with her sleeve. "Maybe…" her mouthed curved into a shadow of her usual smirk, "but if you don't give him his chance my stupid sense of honor will keep screwing with you, and you won't be able to fight him at all."

"I don't like it. You're not trying to sacrifice yourself to protect me or anything like that are you?"

"I just want you to be able to fight him...if you have to. I mean…if I can't defeat him…" Ranko knew Nabiki stood no chance of beating the doppelganger, she also knew that letting him think he could was the only way to win this argument. Ranko wasn't sure if she stood a chance either. It was simply not in her to fight right now. Maybe the doppelganger could be reasoned with…

Nabiki slumped for a moment, thinking. "It doesn't matter anyway," he said finally. "I've lost him by now."

Ranma heard a clang of metal. She whipped her head up toward the fire escape above them and saw the cold glint of a gun barrel. "Nabiki! DUCK!" Ranko shoved the cycle toward the the shooter, hoping that Nabiki would follow the movement.

A bullet sped through the air above them as Nabiki and Ranko fell with the motorcycle. The bullet would have killed at least one of them if they hadn't moved. If they moved away from the shooter, the bullet would have likely killed them both. Now, just as long as they stayed low, the fire escape would offer some cover.

"I don't know who you are," Nabiki said as he got up and ran to the bottom of the fire escape. "But no one shoots at my fiancée!"

"Nabiki, no!" Ranko yelled and tried to catch him

"You're not exactly honoring our agreement, are you Nabiki? Protecting her like this?" a voice called from the fire escape as Ranko followed Nabiki up the stairs but just as Nabiki was getting up, another shot rang out. The bullet slammed into his chest, knocking him down into Ranko's arms.

Ranko screamed. In the next moment, moving frantically, she grabbed Nabiki and jumped down the stairs and below the first landing of the fire escape. She was only marginally safer here, but she paused a moment to look at Nabiki's wound. Blood was gurgling out of it.

"I can't…" Nabiki wheezed

The bullet went through his right lung. Nabiki couldn't breathe. Ranko had to think of something. Fast.

-----furinkan high school, assistant principal's office-----

Akane couldn't be happier. The assistant principal had finally returned with the permission form after only an hour and a half of waiting. He looked just as relieved as Akane when they were done signing. He had actually told Akane thank you.

"Why are you thanking me?" Akane had asked.

"Usually someone will try to help and I'll have to keep them away from the booby traps or help them out of piles of fruit. I'm a little addle-brained anyway, trying to help someone else really increases the time." The assistant principle was about forty years old, but had a mussed up schoolboy haircut. He had dark circles under his eyes and coffee stains on his shirt and tie.

"Thank you, Hitomagi-san," Cologne said, breaking Akane's stunned silence.

"Ah, yes, thank you, sensei." Akane bowed.

"You're welcome, Akage-chan."

"Oh, my name is Akane," Akane corrected with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Akane, how may I help?" the assistant principal asked.

The guy was almost as bad as Nabiki's history teacher! _Honestly_, Akane thought, _couldn't he remember my name for just five seconds?_ But then she took a breath, let it out, and said "Just introducing myself, Hitomagi-sensei. I hope you have a nice day." She bowed and left the office with Cologne hopping behind her on her gnarled wooden staff.

When they were outside the school grounds Cologne stopped and turned to Akane. "You did well, girl. For all your squirming, you still managed to compose yourself. Patience is not a skill you can learn in one sitting however." Cologne stepped down from her staff, and started walking slowly. It was difficult for Akane to match her speed. She kept wanting to rush ahead of the old woman. "Patience is an art form in itself," Cologne continued, "It is not simply about not moving when one is not supposed to move, it is about knowing when to move, and how. You must know as much as possible about your situation."

Akane was only half paying attention as she was still trying to match the Amazon elder's pace. Cologne halted suddenly causing her to stumble a little as she tried to stop.

"Did you meet with your assistant principal before today?"

"Huh? No. Well, I've seen him in the hall before once or twice but he's pretty reclusive most of the time." Akane answered.

"I have tea with him and his wife sometimes. I get much of my information on what happens in the school from him. Also, that is how I knew how trying he can be."

"Oh." Akane said.

Cologne started walking down the street again. Akane followed, paying more attention to her now. "Your sisters know a great deal about patience: Kasumi shows it in caring for your family like she does, and for so many years; Nabiki in maintaining the finances for her exploits, and gathering information. They are both very powerful women, even at such a young age and with only minimal training in the martial arts."

"Yeah. Nabiki's real patient. She certainly took her time tearing off Ranma's clothes so she could fuck him in the middle of the street!" Akane regretted the words as soon as she said them. But seeing that on television hurt and the wounds were still too fresh.

"You're jealous of her."

"No I'm not." Akane argued, "If I were jealous I'd want something she had. I don't want Ranma. She can have the jerk!" Taking a breath she said with more calmness. "Maybe Ranma and I had something once, but it was gone long before Nabiki did what she did."

"You're jealous of Nabiki, and you're also jealous of Kasumi."

"Huh? I'm not jealous of Kasumi, what would make you think that?"

"I seem to recall a story about how you used to have long hair because you wanted to be like her. I also seem to recall something to the effect that you once had a crush on the boy doctor."

"Who told you that?" Akane yelled stepping in front of the Amazon elder.

Cologne looked up and away from Akane nonchalantly, her staff in her folded arms. "I overheard your friends Yuka and Sayuri talking about you in the Nekohanten."

"Oh." Akane said, deflated. "But I'm over that now. I mean...well, okay, sometimes I wonder just how it is that Kasumi gets treated like a saint when all she does is cook and clean and act like a ditz."

"Tell me, girl" Cologne looked Akane in the eyes. "What have YOU done?"

Akane tried to think of some response as the little old woman walked past her. "I helped Ranma!" she remembered, "I've helped him out plenty of times."

Cologne turned and climbed on her staff. "You have a good heart, child, but it gets clouded by your quick temper. You did well today, but only because I was there to guide you. You must use this vacation to improve on this weakness of yours."

"I will," Akane promised.

"The reason you're jealous of your sisters, is that they have patience while you do not. You're jealous of Ranma for the same reason."

"Ranma is NOT patient."

"I agree. He is not. Compared to you though, he's a stone. And you never denied that you were jealous of him." Cologne gave Akane a wicked smile.

Akane furrowed her brow, "I don't get it. How could I be jealous of their patience?"

"Child, remember that when I speak of patience I speak not only of the ability to wait, but of the ability to act when it is required…to do what is prudent at a given time even when you are not inclined to. In order to possess this ability you must first know what must be done, which requires that you know as much as possible about your surroundings…and yourself. Ranma is conflicted over many things, and because of this, he sometimes acts irrationally. But Ranma knows one thing about himself for certain, and that has seen him through many hardships. Ranma knows he is a martial artist. He knows how to think as a martial artist. He knows how to act as a martial artist. He knows when, as a martial artist, he must stand down."

"I'm a martial artist too, you know." Akane snapped back.

"No, child, you are not. You sometimes wish you were, just as you sometimes wish you could cook and be as equanimous as Kasumi, or even manipulate people the way that Nabiki can, but the truth is you can do none of these things. You lack the patience that is required.

"You practice martial arts, and you have a proficiency, true, but you are not a martial artist until the Art has become a part of your soul, until it becomes an integral part of everything you think and do. I have seen you mock Ranma's code. I have seen you intrude on the battles of others, and I have only seen you train seriously when you were forced by circumstance to do so. You are not a martial artist." Cologne turned away from Akane, craning her head back, she said one last thing before bounding off across the rooftops: "Not yet."

Akane stood on the sidewalk for several moments, thinking. She wanted to protest what Cologne had said, but the words kept sticking to her and she couldn't shake them off. Maybe she wasn't really a martial artist. But then what was she? Answers kept floating to the surface of her brain, but there was nothing she could hold on to, nothing she could grab hold of and say "This is me." And then slowly something new came to her.

"I'm an Amazon warrior now," Akane remembered. She didn't know how to coerce people into doing what she wanted, all she knew was how to hit them, but she would learn. Cologne was an expert. She didn't know how to cook or hold her temper, but if she worked long enough at the Nekohanten, she would learn that too. And if she took this opportunity to train, to hone her skills and attempt to learn new ones, she'd be on her way to being a true martial artist, maybe eventually even better than Ranma.

Akane raise her head up higher. She wasn't out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. Still, she felt she had a way out now. She had been confused about Ranma for the longest time. She loved him, she hated him. She was his friend, his fiancée. Now it was clear to her. Ranma was her rival.

Akane rushed to her house to shove her gi and a set of weights into her duffle bag, putting them with the other things she had already packed. Then, she changed clothes and jogged, the heavy duffle bag jostling around her, seven blocks to Yuka's house. She was breathless, but smiling as she knocked and waited at the door. She would wait as long as necessary.

After about a minute, Akane heard Sayuri call from behind her. "Hey, Akane! What are you doing?"

"I'm…er…waiting."

"Um…okay. Don't pop your lid or anything, but we're supposed to meet Yuka and her Dad in their garage, something about a new invention her uncle came up with. Oh, and her uncle's coming too, I hope that's okay."

Akane's eyebrow twitched just a little. For a brief moment she almost got just the tiniest bit angry at having to wait so long by the door when Yuka had TOLD her that she'd be in the house…But she took a deep breath and let it pass. It was okay. She was going to have a fun time at the beach with her friends and get some training in while she was at it. Even Yuka's STUPID Uncle with his BRAIN DEAD inventions wasn't going to ruin that.

"That's…fine." Akane said. "I'll meet you back there in just a bit. I've got to take care of something."

"Okey dokey, Annie Oakley. I'll let them know you're here."

After Sayuri left. Akane opened her duffle bag. Then she stuck her head in the bag and screamed into the cloth of her gi.

Composing herself, Akane took a breath. She would learn patience on this trip. She would train, hone her skills, and learn patience. She was an Amazon after all. She wasn't out of the woods yet, but now at least, she had a path.

----- fire escape ----

Copycat stood on the fire escape looking down at the scene below him in astonishment. He had shot Nabiki. Just...shot her, or him, or whatever. It had been so easy. A pull of the trigger and Nabiki, male for some reason Copycat hadn't quite figured out yet, was on his back writhing and holding his chest, dark red blood already staining his fingers. …_still alive…not for long though._

Ranma was crying over him like, well like a girl. Something had certainly happened between the two. Copycat wasn't sure what. _Ranma's open now,_ he realized,_ I could run down the steps and shoot her in the head no problem._

Killing Ranma would be easy as bleeding right now. And while Nabiki might not be dead just yet, that bullet had to have at least punctured a lung. Death would come in a few hours if there wasn't any medical attention. He had practically killed Nabiki already.

Why was he having trouble with that?

Why couldn't he move now, after killing so many people to get to this moment?

Maybe it was too easy? Copycat sighed. Yes, that could be it. It was such a letdown after all the buildup. But if that was it, what exactly did he want? He knew he'd lose in a fight with Ranma. He could only hope to outwit the pigtailed prick, the only thing blocking that for the longest time had been Nabiki. Whom he had just killed...basically. Now was his chance, he had to take it. He rushed to the steps and almost ran down them, but still he held back.

Ranma was saying something into Nabiki's ear now, apparently oblivious to the threat above her. _Go! Go down there and shoot the bastard, damn it!_ But he couldn't. He wanted Ranma to suffer as he had suffered. He wanted Ranma to understand what had happened to him. He wanted the bitch to _feel_ it. He didn't want to kill Ranma, he wanted Ranma to beg for death.

But...he wanted Nabiki alive too. Nabiki had been the great obstacle blocking him for so long. He wanted to conquer her, to let her know he was better than her. For her to die like this was just...well...it sucked.

_It's too late now. Just finish it_. Copycat nodded solemnly. He walked slowly down the steps to the ground behind his prey. He would finish it. He would kill Ranma, and then, he would kill himself.

Ranma was just standing up. Copycat would wait for her to face him, and then he would shoot her between her eyes. It would be over then. It would all be over.

Ranma turned. Her eyes seemed to burn with cold, blue fire. Copycat smiled, _Probably going to use some new technique. Let's see if it can stop bullets._ He fired the pistol and jumped to the left to avoid whatever Ranma hoped to throw at him.

The sound of the retort came a fraction of a second after Ranma yelled, "Tobu Sennuki!"

Flying corkscrew.

As Copycat tucked and rolled away from Ranma's attack, there was a crashing sound coupled with the sound of squealing metal on metal. It took Copycat a moment to realize that the fire escape was falling toward him, along with quite a few bricks and pieces of mortar.. He scrambled desperately out of the way of the rapidly deteriorating structure, narrowly missing a skewering by one of the pieces of twisted metal.

When the dust cleared, Ranma was standing beside a massive pile of debris, her eyes burning into him. She was so short she almost had the look of a petulant child, but her aura was frightening. It grew blacker and blacker, stealing energy from the air until it grew so cold Copycat could see his breath.

Ranma was alive. Copycat didn't have time to figure out why he was happy about that. He had just enough time to change his form to male Ranma, extend ki claws from his hands and swipe.

------alley------

The tears came gushing out of Ranko's eyes and she couldn't make them stop. This was not the time for crying. This was the time for getting the hell away from the serial killer and getting Nabiki to a hospital. But she couldn't stop. _It's too much. I'm too much of a girl now. But what can I do?_

An image of Happosai sitting with a broken leg beside a felled tree in the Tendo yard floated up into her consciousness. _"You're feeling pretty feminine right now, aren't you?"_ he had asked her that morning only yesterday. Feminine ki...

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Ranko embraced Nabiki. She spoke into his ear. "You're probably feeling pretty manly right now. You want to get up and keep fighting right?"

Nabiki tried to speak, but blood gurgled in his wound when he breathed in.

"Don't do that!" Ranko cried. "Just listen for a second. I want you to try to focus all your manliness into your right hand. You hear me? Just push it all into that one place."

Ranko closed her eyes and tried to imagine a completely female apple. It would have all the nutrients and life force of an apple, but it wouldn't have any rigidity. It wouldn't have any clear boundaries either. It would be substance completely devoid of form.

Ranko put all her feelings of acceptance, of caring, of weakness, of fear, into creating the completely female apple in her hand. She held her hand over Nabiki's and took in the denial, the harshness, the strength and the bravery that she found there.

She envisioned the apple gaining structure, becoming real. There was a weight now in her hand. Ranko let it drop.

"Eat that," she told Nabiki, "It will heal you. I saw Happosai do it."

Ranko got to her feet. She felt weak now, light-headed. It didn't matter. A shot had been fired. Eyes squeezed shut, Ranko stood before Akane holding the pistol. It was her memory as much as it had ever been Nabiki's. She felt her trigger finger tighten. She wanted to kill. Ranko's eyes opened once more. If she killed this nameless shapeshifter would it be any different from killing Akane? Or Nabiki?

Her ki was dark. The air grew cold around her as her body desperately tried to fill the void in her soul with warmth and prana from her environment. There are some voids that cannot be filled, however. Some problems that keep returning after they're solved. Second chances to make a bad decision.

She didn't have to do this. She could get away now. She could run off with Nabiki, give herself enough time to find a better way out of this. But she knew that wasn't going to happen. The trigger had already been pulled. As soon as that bullet hit Nabiki's chest, this became a battle to the death.

Ranko glared at the fake policeman just coming down from fire escape. She moved her arms in a circle, mixing her cold ki with the relatively hot ki of the air around her. The figure raised the pistol toward her. A bullet fired from the barrel a fraction of a second after the words "Tobu Sennuki!" fired out of Ranko's lips. A horizontal tornado of ki-strengthened wind ripped and twisted through the metal fire escape, making a horrible screeching and moaning sound. The bullet ricocheted off a manhole cover farther down the alley.

The shapeshifter jumped away from Ranko's first attack and was almost covered in the debris from the building. He landed next to Ranko. She turned to face him, planning her attack.

Grabbing a blanket, seemingly from nowhere, Ranko's enemy changed, in an instant, into a copy of male Ranma. The changeover was somehow familiar, but Ranko couldn't quite put her finger on it.

There was Ranko's male self, confident, smirking, male, but her expression did not change. It would go against the Art. It would go against her honor. She didn't care. This thing, in whatever form it took, was going to die.

Strong, sharp lines of ki descended slightly from the shapeshifter's fists. _Nekoken, _Ranko registered, but she took no time to wonder at how the monster knew the technique. She jumped above the shapeshifter's slash and threw another Tobu Sennuki down at him. The move tore the asphalt from the ground below her, but the doppelganger managed to escape everything but a few blows from the debris.

Then he started convulsing. He threw his head back and his body forward, then his body went the opposite way. He shook violently. His fists opened and closed. He screamed.

This made Ranko pause for a moment, but at this point, she really didn't give a fuck if the bastard was epileptic. Gathering ki, she prepared to release another Tobu Sennuki. Before she could finish it, however, the shapeshifter lunged at her in an unmistakable nekoken move.

Ranko barely managed to dodge in time. She jumped to the wall of the closest building, narrowly avoiding another attack. She launched off the wall onto the roof of the building with the ruined fire escape to gain some distance. The shapeshifter started convulsing again, this time collapsing to the pavement and scratching deep gouges with the ki claws, the asphalt curling away like it were chiseled wood, then crumbling into piles of black after breaking contact with the ki.

She wouldn't be able to match the speed of a full-fledged nekoken. If she got off a lucky shot with the Tobu Sennuki she _might_ be able to end it, but it would take too long to set it up, and it was getting harder and harder to maintain her heart of ice in the pressure of the battle. She could feel her cat self ready to take over, she knew it was the only way to beat the shapeshifter now, but she hesitated.

This would be only the second time in eleven years she ever purposely let the cat take over. Her fear of cats could bring it out of her, and yesterday Shampoo and Nabiki, two other people with the nekoken, caused her to switch over without even realizing it. But there had only been one other time she'd ever switched over on purpose, without the fear.

The day Ranma had almost killed his father.

-----eleven years ago-----

Ranma lay down in the pit, unable to move. It was too dark to see anything. He could only...hear...feel...smell.

It wasn't the cats at first. The only time they scratched or bit was when they fought each other. They never attacked him. There was no reason to. They nibbled the fish off of him. They rubbed against him. They purred.

Initially, it was the dark, the not being able to move. His mind would conjure up images to fill the blankness of his vision. Hallucinations that blew every touch of fur, every purring sound out of proportion until it was something else…something more powerful and sinister.

The first two times Ranma was all for the training. The third was when he first asked his father to stop. Usually Genma would taunt Ranma a little if he didn't want to do a training technique but eventually let it go. Not this time. He threw Ranma in the third time. And Ranma cried.

He didn't understand.

While in the pit, his mind went everywhere. He felt at times like he was covered in a giant, vibrating blanket. Then, sometimes he felt like he could catch words or phrases in the sounds he heard. A touch of fur and he would wonder for a moment whether it was his skin touching the fur or his fur touching the skin. He pondered this for a minute or so and then when he finally remembered why the idea was ridiculous he found the thought so disturbing he moaned.

He begged Genma not to put him back in the pit the fourth time. Genma just got angrier, he called him a girl, he said he was going to disown him. Ranma at that point was so frightened of the pit that he ran away, rather than go back there again. But Genma caught him, tied him up and threw him in again. He said it was the only way for him to get over his phobia.

Back in the darkness Ranma became convinced that Genma was not his father anymore. Somehing had possessed his father, eaten his soul. It was a large, female, humanoid cat figure. Her name was Ba Shiteto. She nibbled at Genma's soul, like the cats nibbled at the fish tied to Ranma's body. Or were they nibbling his body? Ba Shiteto batted at the soul from time to time with a hand with silver claws. Ranma wondered then whether it was really Genma's soul or his own. Sometimes the soul took the form of a tanto held by the unsheathed metal tip. Other times it was a daikatana. Still others, Ba Shiteto held the soul by a tail and the soul would bat back with little claws, like a kitten.

This time, when Genma took him out again, Ranma didn't even try to reason with him, he just bolted. It took Genma longer this time, but once again he caught Ranma. Once again he yelled at him, called him names, tied him up tight and threw him in the pit.

In the black, Ranma could see that Genma wasn't his father anymore. He was a zombie. A flesh golem. A monster. If he wanted to escape he had to defeat him. But he couldn't. He was just a boy. A normal man he might have managed maybe, but not a martial arts master like his father. Even if it wasn't really his father. Ba Shiteto rubbed in between his ears and said that there was a way but that Ranma would have to let go of his humanity and become what he was meant to be. "I don't understand," Ranma responded, "I'm not human, I'm a cat."

Only this came out as a terrible yowl/scream. "That's very good," Ba Shiteto said, "Just remember that, and you'll be fine."

Genma pulled him out again and this time Ranma didn't move. Genma gave him food and water. Ranma chased after a grasshopper. Genma asked if Ranma was okay. Ranma said nothing. Genma asked if he really didn't want to go through with the training. Ranma was distracted by a butterfly. Everything was okay until Genma tied him up again. Ranma started struggling. "You had your chance, boy," Genma said and threw him back in the pit.

Ranma yowled. Ranma spat. Ranma ripped through his bonds and leapt to the edge of the pit. Ba Shiteto was right. He had to get rid of the human. He could find food somewhere else. Ranma knocked his father down. Genma was saying something with a happy voice, but Ranma didn't understand it. Ranma picked Genma up with his mouth and flung him in the air. He batted him with his paws. This was easy!

He soon grew tired of playing with the human though, who by that time had fallen unconscious. He was about to slice his head off when he paused. There was a remnant of his humanity whispering to him. "_What if this is the real Pops_?" He couldn't break out of the cat mentality, but he couldn't finish the blow either. Something was scaring him, creating an emotion so deep it affected him even through the nekoken. It was the real fear behind every fear he felt in the pit. A fear of losing...something. He couldn't make sense of it. All he knew was that something was scaring him.

Ranma did what most animals do when frightened. He froze. Then he ran.

After he recovered, he didn't remember anything. A vague sense of the pit, nothing else. That's what he told himself at night, when the nightmares came. Because if he remembered it…if he accepted what he had almost done...

-----present-----

Things were different now. Genma was no longer the center of Ranko's life. Nabiki was. They were both under the nekoken when they made love in the middle of the city. She remembered being a cat. She remembered enjoying it. Now her cat side was inextricably entwined with who she was.

But there was still a boundary Ranko still hadn't quite crossed. And now, in the seconds as she contemplated how she would attack this monster before her that wore her face, even as her own ki claws slid slowly from her knuckles and she lowered into a more feral stance, she felt the fear. If she continued, she would lose something precious to her. She paused for a moment. But the situation was different. If killing the monster meant losing something... then it was lost the moment Nabiki was shot.

The monster screamed again from the rooftop across the alley, contorting itself into a new position. Ranko suddenly knew what was wrong with it. It tried somehow to steal the nekoken. It had tried to take the power without knowing its true nature. It was like one of those dogs that do tricks for the human folk. It did not know what it was.

Ranko crouched low. Her soul of ice evaporated. Her ki claws were now fully extended from her hands as she watched the wretched thing writhe. This was the creature that had attacked her mate? She would kill it, and because she was feeling a little hungry, perhaps she'd eat a little off its flesh.

She lunged toward the shapeshifter, eagerly anticipating an easy kill.

-----nerima prefecture police department-----

Hiro didn't seem to have anything else to do. Copycat was long gone, and he wasn't sure what he'd do if he could reach him anyway. How could he even tell him from anybody else? So he followed Inamura to the morgue. He hated corpses. He hated death of any kind really, but at the moment he NEEDED to do something he hated... just to reconnect with the world. He felt more like stabbing himself repeatedly with a rusty blade, but going to a morgue would do in pinch. Less messy anyway.

-_You still there?-_ he thought out to Hoko.

-_Yeah. I'm feeling a little stupid right now. Should have remembered he could heal with that blanket of his. I could have warned you.-_

_-You're just a girl. You didn't know any better,- _Hiro consoled.

-_Yeah, well, you're just a girl now too. Besides, you're what, 7 years older than me? I guess that makes you a wise old man.- _Hiro could sense Hoko rolling her non-existent eyes.

Before Hiro could think of a response, he was interrupted by the blast of cold air as he entered the morgue.

Immediately he regretted coming.

All the bodies were locked into silver drawers in the wall, out of sight. But Hiro could feel them like a worm sliding through his intestines. He could hear them in the back of his mind like a musical ensemble comprised of dentists' drills and nails on chalkboard.

"Be quick about this, Inamura," Hiro half-shouted against the din, the high pitch of his voice making it sound almost like a scream, "I'm really not good around dead bodies."

"On the contrary, Kawagami-kun." Inamura turned back slightly, looking down at him out of the corner of his eye, "Your problem is that you ARE good around dead bodies. A little too good. You're in that body, but I knew who you were as soon as you and the doppelganger entered the precinct. You know why?"

Hiro shook his head.

"Your eyes. Light blue, the irises almost white themselves. They're sensitive. They see things that others do not." He took a puff from his cigarette, almost completely covering his goateed mouth with his hand in the movement. He let out the smoke. "I know why you left your old precinct, Kawagami." He turned back around and walked to one of the drawers. "'Arasu, poru Yoriku!'" Inamura said, seeming to quote something as he rolled out the cadaver. "Ah nu hin, Horasho.'"

"What?" Hiro asked.

"It's English. Shakespeare actually," Inamura informed.

Hiro shook his head. "I've only ever read Romeo and Juliet. And that was a Japanese translation."

"There's a scene where Hamlet, a young prince, finds the grave of a fool that once played with him when he was a child, and laments the passing of happier times." Inamura pulled back the cloth covering the corpse. "This fool… was my brother."

The corpse was hardly anything more than a skeleton. The bones were held together by dark brown and gray leathery skin, the whole pitiful sight looking like an unwrapped mummy long forgotten, like a picture Hiro had seen of a man that had been frozen in ice for thousands of years. The chill of the morgue seemed to intensify at the thought. Hiro wondered just how long the man before him had been dead.

The corpse sat up.

It lifted an arm, pointed a bony finger toward Hiro. -YOU!- Hiro heard in his mind. -YOU DID THIS TO ME!-

Also in his mind, Hoko started screaming.

Hiro himself only stood in shock.

-FIX ME, YOU BASTARD! PUT ME BACK THE WAY I WAS!- the corpse was slowly getting to its feet.

-_Why the hell aren't you running?_- Hoko demanded, -_That zombie is gonna kill us!-_

Hiro was beginning to put the pieces together. The man he punched out---no, not a man, a quivering mass of sewer sludge masquerading as one, a boil on the ass of the lowliest devil in seven hells fashioned somehow into the basic shape of humanity, the rapist and murderer of fourteen teenaged girls who had gotten off scott free--- this _thing_ was what now staggered before him, shorn of its flesh as if no longer capable of pulling off a full disguise. "THIS, is your brother?" Hiro's tone was deeply accusatory. Even through the higher pitch of Hoko's vocal chords the words seemed cloaked in ominous darkness.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. This corpse, which until recently had the good sense to remain still," Inamura raised his hand in a "stop" gesture which seemed to cause the zombie to flinch in apprehension, "Was once my elder brother, Inamura Yusuke. When we were kids he used to give me piggy back rides. He used to walk with me to school. I used to look up to him. I'm afraid though, that he stopped being my elder brother long before he died. And he died long before you killed him."

-_What is he talking about?_- Hoko was asking in his brain.

Hiro paid no attention. "That wasn't his name. It was-"

"Changed after the first rape charge. My father disowned him and I swore to make it my life's work to put scum like him behind bars."

-DAD NEVER GAVE ME ANYTHING! NONE OF YOU EVER GAVE ME ANYTHING!- the thing screamed at Inamura, but Inamura didn't seem to hear as he took a casual pull off his cigarette.

"Thirty-five years I spent chasing after my brother and his kind, and then one day his decomposing corpse comes sauntering into the precinct like the prodigal son returned. I think he even expected a fatted calf."

"Fatted calf?" Hiro didn't catch the connotation. He shook his head, "How did he wind up here? Why is he still alive?"

"The answer to both questions, my friend, is that this," Inamura gestured with the hand that held his cigarette to indicate his surroundings, "is Nerima."

"Yeah, okay, I know weird stuff happens around here for some reason, but he lived on the other side of Tokyo. What is he doing here?"

"Trying to stay alive. Like all magical beings he needs a source of energy. Nerima is one such source. There are others. I'd bet the place Ranma and his friends got their curses is another example. Usually a source is one or more of three things. Either its an opening in the ground, such as a spring or volcano, a site of extreme evil, or of extreme tectonic pressure."

"Tectonic pressure… Right." Hiro was a little lost.

"Tokyo is only a short distance from an intersection of three tectonic plates, a prime location for sources."

-EXCUSE ME, BUT I'M STILL HERE, HELLO?-

"Hey, guess what, asshole, I don't care," Kawagami spat out at the undead rapist.

"That's uncalled for," Inamura pointed angrily, "Just because I like to be dramatic and mysterious about things when I explain them doesn't make me a…" He straightened. "Oh. You were talking to my brother."

"Yeah. I guess you can't hear him then?"

"Only in my dreams. I'd like you to tell him something before you kill him. Or maybe he can understand me already. I can't tell. I'd like you to tell him that I still miss him, and I always will. Just as I'll always love that part of him that was kind to me all those years ago. He deserves every pain he has received and more for what he did. But with luck perhaps he'll get his shit together in the next life and we can be brothers again sometime down the road. He's already wasted this life."

-YOU ALWAYS WERE WEAK, LITTLE BROTHER.-

"You know that part about him getting his shit together in another life?" Hiro said.

"Yeah?"

"Not likely." Hiro looked over the undead elephant sphincter, grimacing at how he had to look up at the murderer now. "How am I supposed to kill him?"

"Just stop keeping him alive," Inamura answered.

"Huh?"

"Until you have better control of your powers, they are more or less attached to your subconscious. You hate my brother for what he did, what he almost got away with. But Hate is an attractive emotion, like Love. You don't really want him dead any more than I do. So your curse was incomplete. It only half killed him. You want to see him suffer, you want to defeat him somehow, so you've unconsciously been keeping him alive. But there's no way you can make him suffer enough for it to matter, no way to conquer his wretchedness to make him see the horror of what he has done. You have to let go. Just as I have had to let go."

-YEAH JUST GIVE UP, PANSY ASS. YOU GOT A LUCKY SHOT WITH THAT PUNCH. YOU'D NEVER BE ABLE TO DO THAT AGAIN. YOU DESERVE THAT BODY YOU'RE IN NOW. HEH I CAN JUST FEEL THAT VIRGIN PUSSY SLIDING OVER MY COCK. MMM MMM MMM!-

Hiro fought the rush of anger that washed over him, his fists clenched and tight against his sides. He could feel all too well the differences between this body and his usual one. Even without Inamura's advice, he knew that he could not allow himself to be goaded. With a shaking, disturbingly feminine sounding voice, Hiro asked, "How did he get this way? You say he was a good person once? How is that possible?"

Inamura took in some smoke from his cigarette and let it out in a drawn out sigh. "I've seen it happen to other people. It's different every time, but in all cases there's a point where in order to survive, or to get something they feel they need, the person has to sacrifice something precious to them. Sometimes they can get it back. Sometimes," Inamura nodded at his brother, "It's lost forever."

"What is it?" Hiro asked, "What do they sacrifice?"

"Again it takes a different form for every person, but if you ask me, what it amounts to is…humanity."

Hiro looked again at the zombie he had unwittingly made with a blow from his fist. Inamura said his brother died long before Hiro ever met him. Maybe that was just a rationalization. But it felt good. It made sense. Thinking that a human being could be capable of doing what he had done…that was just too difficult to fathom.

There was nothing Hiro could do to restore the zombie's humanity. That very thought caused the wretched undead thing to fall apart where it stood into a loose pile of rotten flesh and dry bones.

Inside his mind, Hoko seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and relax a little.

Hiro felt the opposite. He was starting to get the willies. When he first moved to Nerima, he thought that the craziness was kind of quaint. Now though, stuck in the body of a seventeen-year-old girl and having just disintegrated a zombie he had unwittingly created, he found he was neck deep in the craziness, and "quaint" was NOT the word to describe it.

-----alley-----

Copycat would never have been able to break out of his struggle with the nekoken if it hadn't been for the terrible pain he felt as Ranma's ki claws sliced through his arm and torso. Ranma's claws were almost three feet long, at least ten times longer than his own had been. Clothing, skin, muscle, bone, the claws zipped through them all in an instant as if they were nothing but a cloud of smoke. The claws entered at Copycat's left shoulder and exited out his right lower torso, leaving Copycat on his back, separated from his left arm and his legs. He only had just enough time to use the blanket with his right arm before Ranma came after him again.

Healed in an instant from the blanket, Copycat still only barely dodged Ranma's next attack. Another one came right after it and then another. Needing more space to maneuver, Copycat jumped, as Ranma had earlier, first to the wall of the undamaged building and then to the roof of the one whose fire escape Ranma had destroyed.

Ranma was there a fraction of a second later.

All Copycat could do was dodge blow after blow. His body fell into an odd sort of autopilot as he tried to figure some way out of the situation. The extra space he had afforded from jumping to the roof was rapidly diminishing as Ranma drove him toward the roof of the next building. He tried to jump, but lost his legs again in the attempt. He landed hard on the severed end of his spinal chord which shattered on impact and forced him to cry out even as he managed to use the blanket again.

When he had found out he could hurt himself and heal instantly with the blanket he had become an avid masochist. At first he hurt himself out of a sort of training regimen so that he would be able to continue to fight while injured. Soon though, he began to enjoy it. Each slice of blade or searing of flesh connected him with the world, allowed him to feel something other than the emptiness of being alone. Of not having an identity.

Even before that previous fight with Ranma he had felt apart from society. An orphan without even foster parents or school to give him some semblance of a normal life, all he could do was go from town to town copying martial arts techniques and challenging the masters. Fighting was the only thing that gave him purpose. A purpose that Ranma had taken away, simply by being better.

How do you defeat someone whose abilities go beyond skill? How do you train for a battle you are sure to fail…when you've never really trained before…when you have no teacher to guide you? Copycat attacked himself, learned not to feel pity or pain, dove into the darkness of his soul.

Still, even this sacrifice had not prepared him for this battle. Ranma was relentless, inhuman with human intelligence. A force of nature without nature's equanimity. Copycat dodged, healed injuries as fast of possible and tried in vain to find an opening, but it was no use. He was starting to get tired.

The power of the blanket was not infinite, it could only pull so much mass from nullspace before it needed replenishing. Copycat's various severed limbs were turning into a thick smoke and being sucked back into nullspace, but the process was slow, and Ranma was very very fast.

Operating on pure instinct, Copycat jumped away from where he was standing as Ranma's claws gouged deep crevasses into the roof with a sound that scraped across Copycat's back molars like an electric sander. The resistance from the roof made Ranma slow long enough for Copycat to see her face. She was smiling widely, completely relaxed, enjoying herself. A kitten, playing with a wounded bird.

The nekoken wasn't a mere technique. Of that Copycat was certain. Trying to control it was like trying to tame a tiger by letting it consume your flesh. Even the small amount of time Copycat let it out was agonizing. The thing was like a demon, or at best, a parasite. And yet Ranma seemed merged with it now. She moved not only with the movements of a cat, but with the precision of all her martial arts training. Her eyes burned not only with feral hunger, but with cold intelligence. Even her grin, wider and more menacing though it was, was eerily similar to Ranma's usual smirk.

Copycat realized in that precious moment as Ranma dragged her claws out of the roof, that he was actually afraid.

He could not run away. Ranma was too fast. He could not try to counter attack. Ranma would rip him to shreds. Thinking fast, he used the blanket to turn into the Kawagami body, pulled out the pistol from its holster, and started firing rounds at the red-headed demon creature. He emptied an entire magazine, but not one of the bullets found their mark, and in the end, the only thing Copycat managed to accomplish was to make himself a steady target for Ranma's claws.

This time, there was no escape. Copycat didn't even see the attack. He just felt searing pain in his shoulders and then both his arms fell to the ground with a thud. Warm blood gushed down his sides through the fabric of his uniform shirt. Another swipe from out of nowhere took his legs from him and he was on his back, writhing in agony and no longer capable of doing anything about it.

"It's not supposed to be like this!" Copycat cried. The pain washed over him in waves with every beat of his heart, his life's blood pooling onto the ground around him. The sensation that connected him to the world now betraying him, taking him further away from it. He had thought he would never be this weak again. He had accepted the oni's gift of the blanket and camera at the orphanage. He had found out the secret of the two items. He had escaped. He had copied every technique he could for years. He had learned to welcome pain. He was stronger now, ruthless. He didn't have to be helpless. Not again.

Ranma stood over him. Standing like a human, but somehow the cat was still there in her expression. She went out of his frame of vision for a moment as she bent down to pick something up. Then she was there again, framed by the electric blue of the darkening sky, and holding a pistol pointed straight at his skull. Glancing at it she bent down again, this time getting something from Copycat's waist. A spare magazine. She clicked it into the pistol and aimed again.

None of it seemed to matter. It had all been for nothing. There would be no third chance at this. He had lost, and whether Ranma shot him or he bled to death from his wounds, he would die shortly. "It isn't fair!" Copycat yelled, crazily, "I've learned more, seen more, done more…Why am I-?"

But his words were cut off by the retort from the pistol in Ranma's hand--- that and the bullet that coursed through his cerebral cortex, subsequently exploding out of his occipital lobe and embedding itself a full two centimeters into the concrete of the roof below.

The words he was about to say were "still" and "empty."

-----alley-----

Nabiki hated having to stay down on the street while Ranko fought on the roof. After eating the apple, he felt a little groggy but otherwise fine. While this was odd, considering the fact that only ten minutes ago he was dying of a bullet wound to the chest, it didn't change the fact that now he was fine and perfectly capable of climbing another building's fire escape to see what's going on. But if he did that, sure he might be able to see how the fight was going, but he was also just as likely to get another bullet wound, or worse, get caught in one of those new Tobu Sennuki things of Ranko's.

All he could do was listen to the sounds of battle overhead and wonder.

Ranma's residual male ego had gotten to him more than he would have thought. The complete stupidity he had exhibited in following the killer… It made so much sense at the time. Heck, even now he halfway wanted to get on the roof to "protect" Ranko, even though he knew he'd just get in her way. The other half of him just wanted to watch.

She had always enjoyed watching Ranma fight, even when she thought of him as just a freeloader.

Nabiki looked quizzically down at her breasts, which had suddenly been restored to her. _Oh,_ she realized, _I was lusting after male Ranma. Too much for the male side to cope with I guess. _

As grateful as she was for her return to femininity, she couldn't quite shake the ominous feeling that she was out of her depth. She usually would have worked out some angle on this by now, figured out a way to come out on top. She wasn't even sure what "on top" would mean now. Being able to change into a man might help out in some of her business dealings, but how could she maintain her public image? Did she even have a public image anymore? Her televised urban ailurophilic sexcapade with Ranma had to have shattered any standing Nabiki had. It was at least a nasty mark on her escutcheon. Did she care? She was supposed to control things from afar, be the axis upon which the craziness of Furinkan High School turned. Why the hell did she have to go and fall in love with Ranma Saotome?

It was Ranko Saotome now though. Ranko was 100 girl now, and Nabiki was still in love with her. On top of everything, she was now technically a lesbian.

Nabiki let out a small explosive chuckle.

It would be okay. Sure she could get upset about it, bemoan the loss of her "reputation", but really what sort of a reputation was being an "Ice Queen" anyway? It was really not any different from when people would try to blackmail her. Like that one time, someone tried to get out of a debt by threatening to spread pictures of Nabiki in her underwear. Nabiki simply smiled and said the debt now had an added charge for perversion. The next day, she started selling her own pictures. She found it kind of fun actually. The domination poses she did with the black leotard and whip were particularly popular, though they led to some unfortunate comparisons to Kodachi Kuno later on.

All she had to do was accept her situation, and then she could manipulate it to her advantage.

Nabiki closed her eyes and breathed. Okay. She was now an epistemotransexual in love with a former aquatransexual martial artist who was borderline psychotic, which is what attracted her to…her in the first place. She had saved her fiancé(e) from a sadistic geriatric manipulator of liquid metal from an alternate universe almost directly after learning her best friend had been murdered by a doppelganger. She could see auras now, due to having had a near-death experience, and could now apparently start the engines of motorcycles with her mind. Furthermore, she now had an alternate personality that was a cat, and while in that personality she had had unprotected sex in the middle of a city intersection.

Nabiki's eyes popped open "Oh gods, what if I'm pregnant?"

The sounds of several gunshots above her reminded her that that was the least of her concerns at the moment. The accepting thing was going to take some time, though. That was for sure.

The fight above her seemed to quiet down, and Nabiki watched the small, dark blue patch of twilight sky between the buildings for some clue as to what was going on. There was another last gunshot, which sent chills down Nabiki's back, and then…

And then, something appeared in the patch of open sky that Nabiki had not expected.

-----roof-----

Ranko stood over the monster's body, pistol still aimed at its forehead, watching. Her thoughts hadn't come around to forming complete sentences yet. She knew though, on some level apart from coherent thought, that she could not trust appearances. She had to be sure it was dead.

For a while everything was still. Only Ranko's breathing and the sounds of the city around her prevented her from feeling that somehow time had stopped and she would be stuck in this position for eternity. During the fight, everything had been easy. Fun, even. Only now in the stillness, did she begin to feel a twinge of panic…a vague feeling of something pressing in around her with increasing force.

Fading into view, like a picture on Polaroid film, so gradually she almost missed them, a camera and a blanket appeared next to the monster's torso. The camera was old and blocky, but of good quality. The lens had the words "made in japan" written around it in white, English characters. Fairly normal, but there seemed something off about it. Ranko felt a memory struggle to rise to the surface of the murky waters of her mind, but she couldn't quite retrieve it. She was too distracted by everything she was struggling to ignore. The blanket was folded underneath the camera in a square, but something about the way it appeared made it seem somehow like the coiled body of a snake.

Then the camera and blanket moved.

One second the camera was on the middle of the dark green, folded blanket. The next it was floating half a meter in the air, the blanket hanging from its base.

Startled, Ranko shot squeezed the trigger of the pistol, hitting a corner of the camera. A shrieking sound seemed to issue from its lens.

It wasn't a lens.

The camera morphed and distorted until it was a circular mouth with serrated teeth all along its edge, attached to what was once the blanket. The blanket, too, changed, unfolding, straightening, thickening, and growing more pale until it was a greenish white, chitonous, square section of a much larger creature. Another section like this one followed as the thing that had been masquerading as a camera seemed to shoot out of a hole in the doppelganger's side. In only seconds, five more sections, each about half a meter long came out of null space. The creature was already towering over Ranma and it was still growing.

Ranko shot at it again, but the bullet had no effect as the thing continued to fly out of null space. Extending her ki claws from her left hand, Ranko swiped at the thing just as the last sections left the dimensional hole they were coming from. The chiton was denser than bone, but Ranko's swipe still reduced the last three sections to ribbons. As the remains fell to the ground, they crumbled and turned into a blue mist that was quickly sucked away in three directions…

------alley------

Nabiki was busy trying to make sense of the creature that rose up into the sky from the roof, when the blue mist came after her. It was blue…but at the same time it was bright green and flashing like a strobe. She felt it pulling her toward it even as it homed in and darted toward her breast.

The mist diffused into her, became part of her, but somehow it felt like it had always been a part of her, only it had gone missing without her knowing. Pieces of her psyche that had been missing ever since her accident yesterday now woke up all at once, demanding to know how the hell she had managed to screw things up so badly.

And then, as if getting a fragment of her former self slammed into her wasn't enough torment, she started remembering things she had never done.

She remembered killing Hoko. Cutting her body into pieces and distributing them in dumpsters all around Tokyo. She remembered killing her best friend. As if it had been her all along and not some nameless monster. No it wasn't quite her. Someone was wearing her like a costume, using her like a puppet. _Copycat Ken_. The name came to her as her insides screamed it into her heart. She watched the life drain from her friend's eyes, felt her pulse weaken and die. Worst of all, she felt some part of her, the same ugly, creeping part of her that had one time almost shot her sister, that grew out of her soul like a tumor, threatening to consume her, she felt this part of her laugh in delight.

Some time during all this, Nabiki collapsed to the pavement. She screamed, thrashed her head around, tore at the concrete around her trying to get away from the memories, but they wouldn't leave. They were already a part of her.

-----morgue-----

Hiro had no idea what it was when he saw it. He was helping Inamura clean up his brother's remains. Hoko kept asking him to stop looking at them as it grossed her out but she couldn't control her eyes. And then, as Hiro tried to sweep the remains into a dust bin while looking at the cinder block wall in front of him, he saw the blue mist come through. There were two clouds of it that appeared. They both seemed to hesitate upon entering the room for half a second. Then they both zoomed toward Hiro's heart.

In an instant, Hiro was in his own body. In uniform even, but he didn't notice. He was remembering how he tied himself up. How he looked at Hoko's body when they were about to leave for the police department. How he shot Nabiki. How he tried to shoot Ranma. All these things came at once, and were disturbing enough in their own right, but what Hiro felt more acutely in that moment were all the memories of pain. Of being shot in the chest, of having his torso severed five or six times. Of falling on his severed spinal chord from a height of just under a meter and a half. Of getting shot in the head while bleeding from the stumps of all his major appendages. Of dying.

This was all more than a human being could possibly take. Hiro passed out.

-----hoko-----

For her part, Hoko already knew the perversions Copycat had committed with her body. While it wasn't pleasant to be reminded of them, it was bearable. She was mostly relieved when she found she was able to move on her own. Relief grew to outright joy when she realized she was alive again. Really and truly alive. She felt some concern for Hiro when he fell over, but even as she caught him to keep him from hitting his head on the hard tile floor, she was smiling. Just to prove that she could she spoke "I'm alive!"

Inamura was the only other conscious person in the room, so Hoko turned to him and repeated it, tears coming out of her eyes. "I'm alive!"

Inamura had a wide smile on his face. He looked completely goofy, just like when he'd do his lame magic tricks whenever she and Nabiki stayed over at Ami's house. "Is it really you, Hoko-chan?"

"As far as I know, I mean, I can't be the real thing, I saw that bastard kill the real thing. I'm just a copy, but I feel like me. I thought I'd never be able to talk again or move on my own. Oh Uncle Inamura, I'm ALIVE!" Even though it was kind of weird, Hoko hugged Inamura. He smelled like cigarettes. He felt warm. Her tears were seeping into the rough fabric of his suit jacket as she squeezed his thin, wiry frame as hard as she could.

"Welcome back, Hoko-chan. I thought we'd lost you." Inamura laughed in the way he always did when he was about to tell a bad and vaguely disturbing joke. "You're much better preserved than that other zombie."

-----alley-----

Nabiki took some long, deep, shuddering breaths. She had heard terrible stories during her years as Furinkan High's number one source of information, stories that were like slow acting viruses, spread through whispers behind raised hands. Girls did get raped at Furinkan. Nabiki knew she was one of the lucky ones. It hadn't happened to her and as much as she flirted with the boys, especially before Ranma arrived, it very well could have. Right now, though, she couldn't help feeling that maybe she had a good idea of what it was like.

Copycat Ken hadn't just made her kill her best friend. He made her _enjoy _it. As many times as she told herself that it wasn't her, her memories, which supplied her with excruciating detail, kept telling her it was. She felt like she could have stopped it if she had only tried hard enough to break through Copycat's control, but she couldn't have done anything. She hadn't even thought of struggling. Even her thoughts had been under Copycat's command. But they were so close to her thoughts, his control was so subtle…It wasn't her fault, but every time she told herself that, it felt like a lie.

It was the feeling of moisture in her eyes that snapped her out of it. Tears never solved anything. She couldn't lay on the pavement feeling sorry for herself now. He had to be there for Ranko.

Sitting up, Nabiki blinked at his sex change. He had just gotten his boobs back. Why was he male again? Was it Ranko? That was part of it, he realized, but also there was the strong emotions, which he simply couldn't deal with right now. Yet, Nabiki had always felt girls were better at dealing with emotions then boys, it was one of the reasons why boys could be manipulated so easily. So why the sex change? _Girls _ARE_ better at dealing with emotions,_ Nabiki reaffirmed. He sighed, _Boys, however, are much better at _NOT_ dealing with them._

Right now, the horrible nature of his recently gained memories was in a sort of translucent box that he would have to open up later, but that he could almost forget about now, even though he could see what was inside struggling to get out. It was still there but now he felt he could ignore it.

He had to be careful, Nabiki cautioned himself. This lack of estrogen was fast becoming a crutch. The brave thing would be to change back to female, confront the memories and find some way to accept them.

Nabiki got up. He was a coward. He felt a pang of guilt, and quickly as he could, he relegated that too to a box in a corner of his mind. He would deal with these things later. Right now he had to find Ranko.

As if called by his thoughts, Ranko fell from the roof onto her feet like…well…a cat. "It's over," she said. All Nabiki could see was the top of her lowered head, "He's dead. I killed him."

"Are you okay?" Nabiki asked, stepping closer. Ranma's aura looked strange, almost alien, deep blues and dark reds mixing to form roiling purples. The purple was similar in hue to Inamura's aura, but there was no steadiness to it. Only…chaos.

"There was something controlling him I think," Ranko continued almost seeming to ignore Nabiki, "A demon. Looked like a… I'm not even sure what it looked like. I tried to kill it, but it got away."

"It doesn't matter, Ranko. At least you got the bastard, right?"

"It was Copycat Ken, Fly. He was at least a year younger than me." Ranko still wouldn't look up. Her aura however seemed to be doing back flips.

"He killed my best friend, Ran. He could be six years old and I'd still want his head on a stick."

Now Ranko looked up. "You don't get it! He was under that demon's control the whole time! He probably didn't even know it was there! He didn't kill those people, that fucking demon did! He was just a kid, and I killed him and set that demon free to torture more innocent people."

Nabiki's eyes widened as he saw Ranko's ki claws extend and retract with the surge of emotion. Her eyes glowed a dull purple, like the eye shine of a nocturnal beast. Ranko had somehow merged with the nekoken. Nabiki felt himself oddly aroused. He shook his head free of the thought. He had to calm Ranko down. "You couldn't have known that would happen." He tried to embrace her but she recoiled.

"Don't touch me!" She yelled. "You'll feel what I feel."

"You can't go through this alone, Ran." Nabiki said.

"There's nothing to go through anymore, Fly. It's over. I'm not a martial artist. I don't think I'm even human anymore. We can't be together. I'm a murderer, you understand? I killed someone. Yes, he killed your best friend and Gosunkugi and two other people that we know of, but he didn't have a choice. I did."

Nabiki lunged forward and locked both his arms around Ranko. Ranko moved violently and was seconds away from breaking Nabiki's grip, but then she relaxed, melting into Nabiki's chest in a burst of tears. She felt so cold…

Nabiki had Ranma's memories then. They had gone through another similar experience. They had both killed an innocent person. Somehow it was better now. Somehow despite it all, Ranko crying into his chest felt right to Nabiki. It was okay for her to cry, because she was a girl. It was okay for him not to cry, because he was a boy. And there was something wrong with that rationale, but Nabiki just put it in another box and hid it away for later.

"Firefly?" Ranko looked up at Nabiki. Her aura had calmed into a pastel blue violet. It seemed soft now, like a cloud.

"Yes, Ran-chan?"

"I don't think I want to be a boy again, at least not for a while. Is that okay?"

Nabiki didn't know what to say so he just nodded and patted Ranko on the arm.

"Ow!" Ranko exclaimed, startling Nabiki.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing. Just a bruise." Ranko said and hugged Nabiki tighter.

They stood like that for awhile before Ranko spoke again. "I love you, Nabiki," she said, "It sounds weird to say it, but it's true. I'd do anything for you."

"I love you too, Ranko." Nabiki said, filled with an emotion far too big for any box.

"It's scary though." Ranma backed away a little, her arms loosely hanging from Nabiki's neck.

"Why?" Nabiki asked.

"If someone hurts you again…I don't care who they are…I am going to kill them."

-----AUTHOR'S NOTE------

Once again, I assure you Ranma will eventually be male again. It's just that he has to go deep into his feminine side for a while, much like how Dante has to go to the very bottom of Hell, climbing down toward Satan's nether regions, before emerging in Purgatory and then if he doesn't see his dead girlfriend Beatrice, he climbs back up/down into Hell and there are six more weeks of winter.

Perhaps next chapter will actually involve Nodoka, whom I've been really meaning to make a central character.

Also next chapter will have an awful lot of Sayuri in it. Why? Because she strikes me as being rather dull. We simply can't have that can we:snickers evilly:

Currently my writing speed is about a chapter a year. Thanks for being patient and for all your comments and hope you continue to enjoy.

It get's weirder.

-Zorknot


	10. Possessions

**Thyself Known**

A Ranma 1/2 fanfic by Zorknot

**Ch.10: Possessions**

DISCLAIMER: The thunder crashed, and the wind howled outside the hospital window. The machines blipped and whirred, keeping the young woman in the bed alive. Her husband sat beside her, holding her hand. The doctor came in with his stainless steel clipboard, a serious expression on his wizened face. The husband stood up, a hopeful look in his eyes. But the doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said, "but the Ranma1/2 characters in this fanfiction are not the property of the author. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi. There's nothing we can do."

**Helpful Readers:**  
These are people whose comments I've used to make the chapter better.

Nicholas Leifker  
Tai Khan

**Editor**(gave an in depth critique of the chapter)

Abdiel

* * *

**THE STORY SO FAR:** …is hopelessly complicated. There is an underground conspiracy in Nerima bent on preventing the Awakening, which has something to do with the return of demons to the world. Ranma and most of the people he is attached to spiritually are part of something called the _Migration_, a sort of soul sickness that affects people with high levels of ki, causing them to shift to different aspects of their personality and consequently gain new powers as their chakras realign. The Migration is a prophesied event that heralds the Awakening, which the conspiracy is trying to prevent. 

In an attempt to halt or at least slow down the Migration, Tofu gave Ranma an artifact called Thyself Known, which allowed him to consciously control which aspect of his personality he would exhibit. Trouble is, Nabiki was already part of the Migration before then, and a power awakened in her that almost killed her. To save her, Ranma had to share some of his soul with her, in the process, the Thyself Known became absorbed into both of them so that they both have to be together in order it to work.

Naturally, they fell in love.

Akane and the fiancee's aren't too happy about this. They too have become part of the Migration. Akane has Joined the Amazons, Shampoo has left the Amazons, and Ukyo's okonomiyakis are now filled with hate instead of love, making them explosive and deadly. Things are snowballing into a roiling frenzy.

Complicating this further, Copycat Ken, unable to return to his original form after fighting Ranma (anime canon), decided the reason he couldn't beat Ranma was that he wasn't vicious enough (NOT canon). He began systematically killing people close to Ranma so he could catch him by surprise. After killing four people, including Gosunkugi and Hoko, one of Nabiki's two henchwomen and the closest thing she had to a best friend, and absorbing the nekoken with his cursed camera that allows him to copy any technique, Copycat finally had his rematch with Ranma. Ranma, who had bonded more completely with his nekoken, killed him easily, after which Ranma discovered that both the camera and the blanket that Copycat used to change forms and learn techniques were part of a massive supernatural creature bearing a vague resemblance to a flying tapeworm that was likely messing with Copycat's mind.

Ranma sliced at the creature, cutting off the last three sections of its body, which held portions of Nabiki's and Hoko's soul along with some from Hiro, a traffic cop who had recently transferred to Nerima and who recently discovered he was a necromancer. For reason's which are unlikely to become clear again at the moment, he was trapped in Hoko's body when the bits of his and Hoko's soul returned. As a result Hoko is now alive again and Hiro has his own body back. But the experience seems to have affected his abilities…

* * *

**ch.10: Possessions**

* * *

"Possession requires both control and intention. It is obtained from the first moment that both those conditions exist simultaneously. Usually, intention precedes control, as when you see a coin on the ground and reach down to pick it up. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that a person might obtain control of a thing before forming the intention to possess it." 

-Wikipedia

* * *

fluorescent lights

* * *

_Please! Pleas__e! You have to tell them my name! Tell them my name!_

_I want him dead! Kill him! Kill him!_

_Is it over yet? Please tell me it's over. I'm so lonely._

_He's gonna get all the money! He's getting away scott free while I'm rotting here!_

_I don't understand__. I gave him everything in my purse. Why did he shoot me?_

Hiro woke up with a gasp. All around him, shadowy figures were grabbing at him, begging him to help them. The room was full of the specters… each reaching for him… each screaming in pain or anguish. Without really thinking, Hiro reached into his breast pocket, pulled out his sunglasses and put them on. The spirits seemed to grow less substantial, their voices fading with their forms.

Hiro remembered his parents saying he used to scream all the time as a child. That he'd have terrible nightmares that would have him running from his room in fright. They stopped when he was about five years old. Hiro's first memory was of starting preschool at five a good six months after his nightmares had ended. Everything before that was a blank.

Aside from a few encounters with violent death working in the homicide division in his old precinct, Hiro had never seen ghosts before. Even in those cases he could blow it off as an over active imagination playing with his uncomfortably acute ability to empathize with victims. Except for the last one. The girl. He hadn't ever quite been able to rationalize that one away. Something had changed when he saw her. He had seen what she had seen, known what she had known. She had broken through his defenses, walls in his psyche he hadn't even realized were there, and she had left them weakened.

Ever since then, if Hiro listened, he could hear the whispering of spirits. But something had changed again. Now he couldn't help but hear them, even through the protection his sunglasses seemed to offer. It didn't help that he was now in a morgue.

_My babies! They're all alone! My babies! Please!_

_It's so cold. Why is it so cold?_

_Kaori? Where are you Kaori? I can't see; there's too __much smoke. Call out your name, honey, so I can find you. Kaori!_

"I've got to get out of here," He said, rising to his feet from the tile floor. He would wonder about why it was that his sunglasses were suddenly ghostblockers later, once he had some air.

"Hey, you're up!" Hoko's voice, a real voice coming from a pretty girl standing next to him, noted. "How's it feel to be in your own body again?"

"You're alive," Hiro remarked, confused.

"Yep! Apparently Ranma killed Copycat, and we got our bodies back! I'm trying not to think too much about how that's possible exactly."

Hiro nodded, "I remember this mist or something coming towards me and then it's a blank."

Hoko grimaced, "When it hit me, I got all the memories of what he did while using my body. It wasn't fun the first time. The second time…I'm just glad it was quick. I kind of wish we could resurrect the bastard just so I could kill him personally, but I'll work with what I've got."

A vivid memory of falling on his severed spinal chord gripped Hiro for a second before fading. "Okay…starting to come back to me now."

_Is it over? Am I dead yet? I'm so lonely._

_Someone please help me find her!_

_My babies! Please! Please! My babies!_

Hiro shivered. Some of the spirits were hard to ignore. Part of him wanted to help them, but there were too many, and they were too grotesque, and it was all too much for him to handle after everything else that happened. "I really have to get out of here," He said again, and started walking hurriedly toward the door.

Hoko followed him. "Uncle Inamura said it'd be better not to move you in case you had a concussion. It's only been a few minutes. He's in his office at the department talking to Mrs. Saotome."

"Screw that! This place is freaky." Hiro burst through the door like a drowning man coming up for air.

Out of the morgue and in the relative warmth (and silence) of the hallway, Hiro asked, "Inamura is your uncle?"

"He's not my REAL uncle, no. Nabiki and I used to hang around his house a lot. We're friends with his daughter, Ami, though lately she's been acting like a bitch."

They reached the elevator and Hiro punched the up button. "Mrs. Saotome…that's Ranma's mother?"

Hoko smirked up at him. "You want the full soap opera version or the plain facts?"

The doors to the elevator opened and Hiro moved quickly inside. He wasn't sure if it was a real feeling or just nerves, but he had a sense of something chasing him. He greatly needed a distraction. He pressed the close door button several times and when they closed he let out a breath. "Soap opera version, I guess."

"Well," Hoko paused as she pressed the button for the ground floor, which Hiro had forgotten to do. Her long hair held a slight scent of lavender. "For about a year now, Mrs. Saotome, Ranma's mother, has been visiting at the Tendos…"

As Hoko continued telling him about Ranma's troubled relationship with his mother, her words slowly began to relax him. The elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened. Hoko continued talking as they walked out. "The first I found out about this was the day girl Ranma came to school wearing a girl's uniform. That was about a month after Mrs. Saotome started visiting. About half the school still thinks female Ranma and male Ranma are two different people, but I and other students who pay attention to things know differently. A lot of people called him a pervert and a cross dresser and some things which weren't so nice, but he just took it. Nabiki's sister Akane tried to get them to stop, but Akane doesn't handle crowds too well. It wasn't until Nabiki started telling people the story and hinting that he would get back at anybody who made fun of him while he was Ranko that the teasing eased off. Since then about once a month Mrs. Saotome will stay at the Tendos for a few days and Ranma will come to school as a girl. "

They exited the hospital doors and walked across the parking lot to the police department. It was dark out, but the street lights were bright enough that Hiro could see even with his sunglasses. Hoko kept up her narrative. "The thing is, because Mrs. Saotome thinks 'Ranko' is a girl, she gets concerned when 'Ranko' acts like Ranma. You know, wearing boy's clothes, fighting people all the time, et cetera. She feels there's not enough of a parental influence, which is why she shows up every month or so, and why when she does, she makes sure Ranko goes to school dressed properly in a uniform. The last couple months she's stayed longer, like for a week."

"Must be rough for him," Hiro said. He had only been in a girl's body for a few hours and he was barely able to stand it. The idea of being like that for a week…

"Yeah the first couple times she was real depressed. She still gets moody from time to time but Ranma's adaptable. Lately when he's a she, she seems, I don't know, a little more relaxed. She's more approachable when she's a girl, I think. She has friends that male Ranma doesn't have. It's almost like she really is a different person. Funny thing is there have been more accidents at the school recently. Ranma was always a water magnet, but now even when he shows up as a guy about half the time he'll leave school as a girl. I was talking to Yuka Hakimune, she's friends with Akane and she'll hang out with female Ranma during lunch sometimes, her dad is a psychoanalyst and she thinks there might be a psychological element to the curse. That somehow Ranma is more apt to turn into a girl when he _wants _to be a girl, on, like, a subconscious level. I guess since the curse changed maybe he doesn't even need water. I still don't know how Nabiki turned male though. The past few days have been a real jumble, what with me getting killed and coming back to life and all. I think I need a few days to digest everything."

"I need at least a month," Hiro concurred. They reached the doors to the police department and went inside. They almost ran head on with Detective Inamura, Sergeant Suzuki, and a kimono-clad woman carrying a sword who Hiro assumed was Mrs. Saotome.

"Ah, Kawagami, good you're up. Do you mind taking Hoko home? I've got paperwork to fill out and Suzuki's taking Mrs. Saotome to see her…ah step-niece?"

"I suppose that's an accurate term for our relationship, even if it's not technically correct," Mrs. Saotome allowed. Addressing Hiro she explained, "I'm worried about Ranko. I know she's skilled at martial arts, I've heard she's almost as good as my son, but fighting a serial killer? Even if she did best him, it's just too dangerous for a girl her age."

Inamura shook his head. "She didn't just 'best' him, Mrs. Saotome, she killed him. If it weren't for the allowances we make for martial artists and for Sergeant Suzuki's surveillance tracking the killer from the department, she'd be in serious trouble. As it is, I want her to come in for a statement tomorrow."

Mrs. Saotome nodded. "I'll see that she does that."

"Now if you'll excuse me," Inamura gave a slight bow, "I've got to make all this seem normal and put a nice little bow on it before I report it to the main office." With that, he turned and left

"Well, I guess I'm taking you home then," Hiro said to Hoko. Turning to Mrs. Saotome, he bowed deeply. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Saotome-san."

Mrs. Saotome bowed politely, and having given his farewell, Hiro turned and left.

Hoko followed him until they were outside again. Then she stopped Hiro with a hand on his forearm. "Just what are these 'allowances' anyway?" she asked.

"Well, I'm still new here, but as I understand it any violent act committed between two martial artists is deemed strictly self defense. If Copycat had killed only martial artists, there wouldn't be much we could do without knowing more about how they were killed. Our job is to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Beyond that, we do not interfere."

"Makes your job kinda easy then doesn't it? I mean the martial artists here kind of police the area themselves."

Hiro shook his head. "That's what I thought. I transferred over here partially because of the low crime rate, but if the last day or so is any indication, when things go bad here, they go REAL bad."

Hoko nodded somberly. "I'm glad you guys are here. I…" Hoko looked up, taking a breath and closing her eyes. "Damn. It's so good to be alive!"

Without warning, Hoko opened her eyes and walked briskly toward the parking lot. "I'm driving," she declared over her shoulder at Hiro.

"I'm not sure if that's going to work," He said attempting match her pace. I'm bigger than you and…"

"I don't give a rat's ass if you're bigger than me, if you're older than me or you're a guy or a cop or a necromancer or whatever the hell else you want to be. I don't even care if you saved my life. I am driving my own fucking bike. If you don't like it, you can walk." She increased her speed as she said this to the point that she was almost at a light jog when she stopped suddenly, finding her bike in a pool of light from a parking lot streetlamp.

Hiro hadn't really noticed it before, having been preoccupied with being in the wrong body when he first rode on it. It was beautifully stylized with metallic red orange yellow and silver in a brilliant flame design. The exhaust pipes were all custom designed chrome with a nested flute pattern that, in the glare of light, looked like white hot plumes of fire. It seemed in direct contrast with what Hoko looked like, a rather conservative girl with straight black hair, but it spoke volumes of the fierce independence Hiro had seen in her in only a short span of time.

This was not a normal bike. This was something that was loved, cherished. Copycat knew that when he rode it. The memory of the psychopath's sadistic pleasure came unwanted now into Hiro's brain. Copycat took as his the product of years of work and sacrifice. He did so without any kind of respect or reverence as if it was his by default.

Hiro looked up and saw tears in Hoko's eyes as she touched the seat of the bike. He understood. Stuck in Hoko's body, he had felt completely violated, demeaned, helpless, but Hoko hadn't just had her body taken away. When Copycat had driven the motorcycle he wasn't just stealing a possession, he had stolen a part of Hoko's soul.

Hiro suddenly wanted to hit something. Something hard that would cause a lot of pain. He was actually looking for something he could hit when he heard Hoko release the kickstand.

He saw her mount the motorcycle quickly, as if finally coming to a decision and concluding the time for deliberations was over. She gripped the handles of the bike and paused a moment, a look of determination in her eyes. She was reclaiming it. It was hers again.

"You getting on, or are you going to watch my dust?" she called out brashly, her bravado only slightly marred by the crack in her voice.

Hiro got on and Hoko keyed the engine, kicking it to life and revving it with the handle. Hiro tentatively put his hand on either side of Hoko's slight frame. As he suspected it was awkward. Then Hoko took his arms and wrapped them around her torso. She leaned back into his chest, her silky lavender-scented hair touching his lower cheek.

Suddenly, it wasn't so awkward.

Hiro heard an odd sound behind him and craned his neck to see what it was. Two tapered cylinders painted in the same metallic fire pattern as the rest of the bike were moving out of a concealed compartment. They looked almost like miniature jet engines, but of course that was impossible.

"They're miniature jet engines," Hoko explained, yelling in order to be heard over the motor.

Once they were in position, on either side of the bike connected by a short, flat sheet of painted metal, the cylinders looked a little like wings. Inscribed on them were two Chinese characters. They were the characters Hou and Ko. Together they made up Hoko's name. The one on the left meant "Phoenix".

Hiro turned his head back and squeezed the phoenix girl to him as she flew out of the parking lot and into the street, completely ignoring every speed limit.

* * *

reflection

* * *

The city seemed different at night. Nodoka looked up at the passing streetlights through her warped and ghostly reflection on the car window. The fat, eye-patched form of police sergeant Masaki Suzuki was driving beside her with the dome lights on, mumbling something about not being able to find "it". The "it" was apparently the tracking device that he had put on the serial killer that her "step niece" bested in combat, though why he should be so keen on retrieving it was beyond her. 

Nodoka tried to be proud of her son, but the feeling was as warped and ethereal as her reflection in the window. She had seen the news report. Ranma had chosen a bride most dramatically, and there was little doubt he was the manliest man in all of Japan... except she knew there was a problem. Genma had said that something had gone wrong. He had said something was agitating Ranma and Ranko, that maybe the only way to keep both of them from mental breakdown would be to adopt Ranko and banish Ranma.

Nodoka had seen her husband change first on accident, and then she had confirmed it later when she confronted him. He had told her about Jusenkyo, at least the part that involved him. He hadn't said anything about Ranma, but she knew about that too as much as she wished she didn't. Most of the time she had no problem forgetting the knowledge that lurked in the back of her mind. Ranko was Ranko, Ranma was Ranma. But at times like this, when her doubts were close to her, she wondered.

Was it worth it?

Yes, the contract required that Ranma be a man among men, but what if the pressure caused two children to be lost instead of merely one? This rash of manliness on Ranma's part... was it as good a sign as it seemed, or was a light burning brighter just before going dark forever?

The patrol car pulled over behind a couple walking on the sidewalk. The boy had an odd helmet-shaped hair cut and wore a black t-shirt with brown dogi pants--- an odd fashion choice to say the least. The girl was fairly short and had fiery red hair in a pigtail. Ranko of course, no one else had that hair color, but she was wearing an orange shirt with the shoulders cut out and white shorts, which seemed more like something Nabiki would wear. Both of them walked barefooted and when they turned around, shielding their eyes against the glare from the headlights, it seemed as though there was a bullet hole in the boy's t-shirt. Nodoka had the familiar sense of something having happened that she was not likely to ever completely understand.

Sergeant Suzuki opened his door and grumbled out of his seat, his rotundity making it difficult for him to get past the steering wheel. Genma was anorexic compared to this character. Nodoka got out as well, wishing to greet Ranko and try to find out firsthand some version of what happened, even if it wasn't the truth.

Nodoka smiled when she saw Ranko's face. She loved the girl. She loved her spunk and the way she cared for others. She was real too, not some vague form that she could only catch in fleeting glimpses and, more recently, on news reports. Maybe if she adopted Ranko they could find some way to live together? But that wouldn't work either, of course, at least not indefinitely. But maybe it wouldn't be so bad with Ranko around, it would have to be better than being alone…

The family sword vibrated in its sheath. Nodoka gripped the handle tightly. _Patience, Hayama,_ she thought, though it had the feeling of a prayer. _You will be released soon, but it must be done the proper way._

Nodoka felt a wash of guilt. She had been thinking of giving up on her son. Gods help her, but she had been thinking of it.

* * *

headlights

* * *

Nabiki and Ranko had walked in silence for about fifteen minutes before the patrol car pulled up behind them. Nabiki could have started up the motorcycle again, but it would have been too loud…too agitating. He and Ranko needed calm. Something had happened to them and they weren't sure what. Nabiki knew Ranko felt the same way. He and she were connected to such a degree they were practically the same person. They had differences, yes, but it was like they were one brain with four hemispheres instead of two. When they embraced they felt more complete, but at the same time it was like one's right hand clasping one's left. 

This feeling they felt, Nabiki knew he felt it differently than Ranko, but he knew exactly how Ranko felt about it. Ranko was a little scared. She felt out of control and unsure of herself. It was the reason she wanted to be a girl at the moment, because men weren't supposed to feel that way. Nabiki would have chided her except he now knew the extent of the brainwashing Ranma had endured over the years. Men weren't supposed to feel, period. Even as Ranma, Ranko had been a bit more sensitive than most. But Ranma had severe stoicism beat into him at an early age. Ranko relished her feelings having escaped through a loophole in her conditioning, but she also feared them.

Nabiki, by contrast, was a stoic by choice. No one had forced him to mask his emotions, or play on the emotions of others, he came about it naturally. He had good reasons not to trust his emotions, and that was why he was male. For whatever reason, it was easier to block emotions in the male form. Maybe it was the residual male ego from Ranma's influence, though a great deal of that had been evened out. At any rate, it was a little like all his life, Nabiki had been playing with a handicap that he hadn't even been aware of, and now it wasn't there. On one hand it was easier to not feel what he was feeling. At the same time, it wasn't as satisfying. There wasn't as much skill involved.

What Nabiki felt was cold, yet resolute. He would get them through this, whatever it was. He would let Ranko worry, because she needed to worry. And she would let him pretend to ignore his own doubts, because he needed to do that. They both felt different things, but knew that they were really feeling the same thing, and their minds repeated the same message over and over in varying iterations:

They had crossed a line. They had killed and felt no remorse. They had passed a threshold. They had murdered. They had changed. They ended a life. They were no longer completely human.

And as they walked, this mercurial mantra winding through their heads like the ticker tape from some tireless outdated machine, they drew closer together and further apart from the world around them, until the headlights of the patrol car grew at their backs and they turned around, shielding their eyes against the brightness.

"Alright, you chuckleheads," growled a short, fat man in a uniform after clambering out of his vehicle. "Where the hell's my eye?"

Nabiki and Ranko blinked a bit. They recognized Sergeant Suzuki from the police station, but they looked at him differently now. He didn't have much of an aura. It was dark brown and seemed to appear almost accidentally around his body as if it were embarrassed to be there, and there was a thin red filament that came out of his eye patch and continued above the buildings and toward the east.

Nabiki absently pointed in the direction the filament seemed to go.

"Could you be a bit more specific? Not that I don't mind searching through every god-cursed alley this side of Nerima, mind you. I do that sort of thing for kicks, really. Every third fucking Tuesday."

Nabiki's eyes thinned. Beside him, Ranko piped up. "About how much money do you think that information's worth, Firefly?"

Nabiki smiled, "I'd say at least a couple thousand yen." Then he saw Nodoka exit the patrol car.

Even though Nodoka was wearing a kimono, and her hair was in her usual bun, she was still shockingly attractive when compared to Sergeant Suzuki. Nodoka was approaching middle age, but still looked in her twenties. She was practically a taller Ranko with darker hair. The resemblance was unmistakable, and yet Nodoka repeatedly mistook it.

There had been times when the lady seemed quite sharp though. As if hidden in her silken kimono was an iron determination, and her predilection toward tradition was really a well-played ruse.

She had a strong aura that stayed mostly in the blue, but shifted smoothly from light to dark and sometimes into green. She was hard to read. What was oddest though was the sword she carried. It actually had its own aura. A blue and white vortex that seemed to whip around it impatiently.

Nabiki noticed Nodoka tighten her grip on the handle of the sword and moved between her and Ranko. He felt his ki claws come out. Was Nodoka a threat?

Ranko's hand on his shoulder mollified him. _This __is my battle_, Ranko was saying,_ let me handle it._

Coming from behind Nabiki, Ranko called out to Nodoka, "Auntie Saotome!" She rushed to woman in the kimono and the two figures embraced, at first almost like strangers, and then like vampires feeding off each other through their hearts, and then, for a moment, like mother and child. The moment passed like the shine of a silverfish and the two released each other, but it was enough for Nabiki to suspect that regardless of what played out on the surface, neither Saotome held any illusions as to who the other really was. But then why…?

"Saotome Nodoka?" Ranko interrupted Nabiki's analysis, "I want you to meet…er…Takahata Hotaru, my boyfriend."

Nabiki cringed at the name. Not so much Hotaru, he was used to being called "Firefly" by now and even though it had some unfortunate connections to Sailor Moon manga, it was still mostly gender neutral and probably the best choice. Takahata, though, immediately brought Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no Haka) to mind. Nabiki had hated that movie. That stupid kid letting his sister die because he wouldn't get a freaking job…Still, this was improv. It wouldn't do to negate the premise.

"Pleased to meet you." Nodoka bowed slightly.

"Take it easy on me," Nabiki smiled and bowed slightly deeper.

After the introduction, Nodoka seemed to go distant for awhile, thoughts apparently lost on some tangent.

"What the hell you trying to pull?" Sergeant Suzuki snapped, reminding everyone of his presence. "I was at the precinct. I know you two are really Ranma and Nabiki. You only have one alternate form and you haven't even bothered to change clothes. Why do you shape shifters always have to make out like you're masters of espionage or something?"

"I'm sorry," said Ranko with a saccharine smile, "You must have been confused. I like to pretend I'm Ranma sometimes. We're very close you see, and it's sort of a game we came up with. Hotaru here had such a strange haircut, and it reminded me of Nabiki's style, so I thought he could join in on the act. We really didn't mean to be so deceptive."

Ranma lying so easily…that didn't use to be the case. Part of it was from their bond, Nabiki knew, but he also knew that part of it was from practice. When you're sure your mother would literally kill you if she knew the truth, you learn to lie pretty quick.

"Listen, Red," Sergeant Suzuki pointed an angry finger at Ranko, "I may not look like much, but I'm an officer of the l-"

Nodoka put a hand on Sergeant Suzuki's shoulder, restraining him. "What she says is correct, officer. It's an odd habit and I've scolded her about it, but she still persists. She's getting a little old for these games, but I can't do much about it. I'm not even really her aunt, and besides, children grow up so fast these days. I say let them be innocent a little longer."

Nabiki felt a shiver run through his body. "Innocent" was no longer a word that described him and Ranko. Not in any sense. "We'll help you find your eye," Nabiki volunteered, hoping to distract himself from the thought, "just as soon as we take care of payment."

"I'm not going to pay you!" Suzuki said incredulously, "I only have two eyes, damn it, and thanks to you and your psychotic sidekick one of them is lost somewhere in the dark streets of Tokyo."

Nabiki blinked. Suzuki was seriously mistaken if he thought _Ranko_ was _his_ sidekick.

"I'll give you a side kick up your ass, Cyclops. I don't care if you are a cop," Ranko shot back. Her ki claws extended a centimeter from her fists.

Nabiki touched Ranko lightly on her arm. _Easy there, Sunshine. _

Ranko calmed herself.

"Yeah, go ahead and threaten me, Ninja Girl. I don't know why Inamura puts up with you clowns, but when the head of the department gets back from America we'll see how…" Suzuki trailed off. "Wait. How the hell did it get over there? Shit. It's too close to the water." Suzuki moved quicker than Nabiki might have guessed possible for someone so large, scrambling into his patrol car. "Sorry!" he yelled out of his window in an insincere tone, "I got to get there before… aw hell someone's getting closer. Look, you'll have to walk home. Tell whatever idiots try to mug you I said 'Hi'!" With that, Suzuki engaged the engine, squealed his tires and left.

"What a rude person," Nodoka said.

Nabiki was inclined to agree.

* * *

calling

* * *

It had a different name, but that's what Yuka and her family had always called it, and so Sayuri and Akane took to calling it that too. Night Beach. The reason was that it only seemed like a beach at night, when it was colder and when most of the people were gone. Yuka's grandparents still worked at the ryokan where they were all staying tonight. All day they would have to deal with the demands of the crazy gaijin tourists who wanted hamburgers with their sake and demanded a "real" mattress instead of a futon even after their wives tried to explain to them that it's not that type of hotel and that if they wanted that they could have gone to the Marriot... The couple that stormed out a few hours earlier still had Sayuri miffed. Sometimes knowing English was a curse. 

Yuka's grandparent's had to deal with that crap all day, and they didn't get a break until the night. Then the two of them would walk about half a kilometer out to the Night Beach and sit, watching the tide come in to wash away all the madness.

Sayuri thought Yuka's grandparents were too nice. Family was one thing, but letting her and Akane impinge on their alone time was taking hospitality too far.

But despite feeling a little guilty, she wouldn't say anything. The moon was shining on the waves as they crashed upon the shore and everything was crisp, cold, still, and beautiful. Tonight they were all sitting on the cool sand, her, Akane, Yuka, and Yuka's parents, uncle, and grandparents. They were silent as they sipped the tea from the thermoses they had brought. This was a precious gift, this moment, and Sayuri didn't have the heart to return it.

Sayuri's mom was the stereotypical office lady. Divorced and harried. Her mom tried, but the simple fact was that in order to be there for your kids, you have to be there, and Mom couldn't do that. Sayuri was used to feeling lonely, but it was times like this when she could see what she was really missing. Times like this, when she felt the bond that the Hakimune family had, that Sayuri loved them more than even her own mother.

Beside her, Akane sighed. "I needed this," she said, seeming to put Sayuri's feelings into words.

"We all did," Yuka agreed, surprising her. Sayuri gave her a questioning glance. Yuka never seemed to have any problems. In response, Yuka grimaced slightly and got up. "I'm going for a walk. You guys want to come?"

It was the kind of request you don't say no to, and at any rate, the mood was broken with the silence. Sayuri and Akane got up to follow her.

"We'll probably head back soon," Yuka's father said, "don't stay out too late okay?"

"Okay, Daddy, we won't," Yuka said and started walking to the edge of the surf. When they were out of earshot, Yuka said, "Guys, I need your opinion on something."

"What is it?" Akane asked, concerned.

"Yeah, usually we're the ones asking for advice." Sayuri nodded.

"I know, but this… I can't think about this clearly." Yuka looked back toward her family, and then she looked down, crossing her arms as if hugging herself. They were all dressed for the cool night temperatures, but every now and then a cool breeze would cut through and cause one of them to shiver. Yuka seemed to be suffering from a different chill though. "I'm thinking of maybe not going to a university when I graduate."

"But you're going to be a psychotherapist!" Akane protested, "How can you do that without a university degree?"

"I know, but… It's Grandma and Grandpa. They're getting old, and Grandpa…he's starting to forget things. We're not sure how long they can keep running the ryokan."

"Can't they hire more people or something?" Akane asked.

Yuka shook her head. "Grandma and Grandpa are very traditional. They hire people from time to time to help with repairs and the like, but otherwise they do everything themselves. The ryokan's been in the family for generations and they don't want it leaving the family. Daddy was supposed to take over after them but he went into psychology instead. So now…"

"Why can't you do both. Be a psychotherapist AND help with the ryokan?" Sayuri asked.

"Even if I had enough time to do that after classes and studying for exams and homework it wouldn't work out. Dad tried that. What Grandma and Grandpa do… it's like they're monks or something. It's a way of life. You can't just do it on the weekends."

"Maybe your mom or dad could retire and help out?" Akane suggested.

"Mom and Dad are both very dedicated to their jobs. Daddy almost has a complex about his work and Mom's a teacher who actually cares about what she does. Asking her to retire would be like… I don't know. It'd be like asking Grandma and Grandpa to give up the ryokan."

They walked in silence for a while by the water. The beach would always be here regardless of what happened to the ryokan. But without the Hakimunes, it wouldn't be Night Beach anymore. It'd only be one of the many beaches of Japan. If the Hakimunes didn't own the ryokan, it would be some business man or woman, hoping to make as much money as they could. They might even tear down the ryokan and build another Marriot or Hilton. The beach would still be a beach, but it would lose its soul.

Yuka's grandparents _were_ like monks. Even during the day the ryokan seemed so peaceful. People staying there were treated to something almost sacred. It was why people like Mr. Hamburger upset Sayuri so much. Here was this wonderful experience they could have and instead they want the same crappy things they're used to. But there were also people who appreciated the gift, who came away having been subtly changed by the experience. Without the ryokan…nothing. It'd be nothing. Just a beach and another boring hotel room.

Sayuri suddenly had an idea. "Maybe…I could do it!"

"Huh?" Yuka asked.

"Listen, you and Akane know what you want to do right? Well I don't. I'm not a martial artist, I'm not good at reading people like you are, Yuka, and really I'm not much good at anything. Maybe I just need a calling though, maybe this is it." Sayuri started to get excited, "I mean I love it here. I could learn from your Grandparents and start helping during the day. It's not like I'm doing that well in school anyway, and so I could just work here full time. Then I could keep it going when your grandparents aren't able to."

"Um…Sayuri," Yuka held up her hand in a stop gesture, "You're forgetting the main problem here. You're not a Hakimune, no matter how often you hang around the house."

Sayuri deflated. It was a stupid idea, and she was stupid for saying it.

"Sayuri, that was supposed to be a joke," Yuka explained with a slight smile.

"I know. Sorry. I guess you're in a tight spot." Sayuri looked up at the moon as she kicked at the sand. It was none of her business what happened to the ryokan or to Yuka for that matter. It wasn't her family. It wasn't her problem.

"Honestly, I don't know what to tell you," Akane said. "But my sister Kasumi took care of the house after Mom died and Dad became a wreck. She was going to be a doctor, but she seems happy enough now, maybe it isn't so bad?"

Sayuri shook her head though neither Akane or Yuka saw her. Yuka wasn't like Kasumi. She had too much ambition. Her dreams were too powerful.

Sayuri saw something out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head for a better look. _Oh it's just a gigantic flying flat segmented thingy with a circular mouth and teeth._ She turned her head back to the sand beneath her. _Wait a minute…_ Sayuri looked again and the giant… thing seemed to fly into the sand where they had been walking with a gentle thud.

"Whatever you choose to do, Yuka, we're behind you," Akane said. "Right, Sayuri?"

"Did either of you see that?" Sayuri asked.

"See what?" Yuka looked around.

"I don't know what it was, but it was big and looked like it went straight into the sand over there."

"Hold on," Akane said with a tinge of martial arts bravado, "I'll go check it out."

Sayuri waited with Yuka as Akane stalked up to something, and nudged it with her foot.

"It's okay I think!" She called out. "Somebody left their towel and a camera, that's all it is!"

Sayuri started toward it but Yuka stopped her. "Hold it," she whispered, "Remember this is the same girl who said that the bomb the principal left in our classroom a few weeks ago was 'just a pineapple'."

"Noted," Sayuri said, but she went ahead anyway. She felt Yuka was being a little unfair. It had looked an awful lot like a pineapple. The fuse was barely visible.

The camera and the green cloth, not really a towel in Sayuri's estimation but more of a thin blanket, seemed to be just that. The blanket was folded neatly into a square. The camera rested on top. The words around the lens read "Made in Japan." Now if it had said "Made in the USA," Sayuri might have been suspicious. But if it was made in Japan, it was reasonable to assume it wasn't going to blow up. Sayuri moved to pick it and the blanket up.

"Wait," Akane said, "I'm sorry. I think I may have called you over too soon."

"What's wrong?" Sayuri asked.

"I don't know. It's…it's too… normal looking."

"That's bad?"

Akane looked like she was having some sort of epiphany. She'd been getting the look a lot since she showed up at Yuka's earlier this evening. Sayuri had asked her about it, but she said she'd explain later. Akane swallowed. "I think, yes. I've been through a lot the past year and something happened yesterday…it's like I'm seeing everything I went through for the first time. Look, we didn't see this the first time we passed this point, right?"

Sayuri nodded. She glanced over at Yuka who was looking a mix of impatient, concerned, and uncomfortably curious. "But maybe we just didn't see the blanket and camera, because we were talking with Yuka."

"But you saw something 'big' hit this spot, right?"

"I don't know what I saw. It could have been anything."

"But…it's not anything. If something big landed here, there should BE something."

Sayuri frowned. "What, you mean like a crater, or a giant bug monster or something?"

Akane was silent for a while. She seemed to mull over the idea in her head for a moment before she said. "Yes. It's not so much that there's nothing here. There is something, but its completely normal looking. I mean before today, I might just think 'no problem' and pick it up but…Sayuri, honestly, something that falls out of the sky has no business being this normal."

"Akane, I just said, I don't know what I saw. Maybe nothing fell out of the sky. We have to be rational here. Someone just forgot their camera and their blanket. We have to bring them to the lost and found."

Akane just gave her a worried look.

Sayuri shook her head. "Look, if you won't take them, I will." She picked up the blanket with both arms, letting the camera rest on top. The blanket was a little rough, probably made of cheap wool, or maybe a polyester mix. Other than that there was no sensation. "See? Nothing happened. Nobody blew up. Now let's just get going, shall we?"

If anything, Akane looked even more concerned. "Sayuri, I'm sorry. I should have picked that up the moment I thought something was wrong. Maybe everything's okay. I hope so. But I've had to deal with curses and magic and demonic possessions, and I'm getting major déjà vu here. You've got to promise me that the MOMENT anything strange happens you'll tell me, okay?"

"Akane, it's just a blanket and a camera, I don't see-"

"Promise me!"

"Okay, okay, I promise, yeesh. What's gotten into you lately?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you and Yuka all about it when we get back to her. Just remember, Yuka and I are your friends. We're here if you need us, okay?"

"Thanks, Akane, but I don't understand why you're so worried."

"You want to make me feel better?" Akane asked, suddenly shifting gears.

"Um… sure."

"Give me the blanket and camera."

"No!" Sayuri snapped, "Why should I? Because of some superstition you have about normal things?"

"Just drop them, then. You can pick them up right after. Just humor me."

Sayuri almost did just that. She thought about opening her arms and letting the blanket and camera fall. The idea made her nervous though…She laughed off the tension. "Come on, Akane that's just silly."

Akane sighed. "If you can't even do that…Sayuri go ahead and call me crazy. I've been called worse things. But you're acting like I did before today. I think this thing is already playing with your mind. And the way you picked it up, it was like you were drawn to it. Like it chose you."

"Akane, you're crazy. This is a camera and a blanket, not some demonic 'thing'."

"I already know you're not going to listen to me, Sayuri. Just remember I'm here if you need me, and Yuka's here for you too." Akane nodded toward the space behind Sayuri.

Yuka had come over while Sayuri wasn't looking, "Something wrong?" she asked.

"No," Sayuri responded, "nothing much. Apparently Akane thinks I've been cursed by an infernal camera and blanket demon duo. I think she needs to get some sleep or something."

To Sayuri's exasperation, Yuka did not laugh. Instead, she asked Akane: "We aren't in Nerima right now; you really think something like that could happen out here?"

Akane shrugged. "There are gigantic duck-billed platypuses living in Ryugenzawa. Nerima doesn't exactly have the weird market cornered."

Sayuri let out a small scream. "Am I the only rational person here?"

Yuka put a hand on Sayuri's shoulder. "Yes, Sa-chan. And I'm afraid that's a strong indicator that you've completely dissociated yourself from reality."

"Hey, guys," Akane said, "someone's coming this way."

Sayuri looked where Akane indicated and saw a very fat man in a police uniform bumbling toward them from the beach parking lot. The moonlight was enough to see him with, but he was using a flashlight to scan the ground in front of him, and Sayuri was temporarily blinded when he directed it at her.

"Oi!" The officer called out "Any of you girls see an eye?"

"An…eye?" Akane asked, her hand shielding her own eyes from the glare of the flashlight. "No…uh…sorry."

"You." The officer directed the beam to Sayuri. She had to squeeze her eyes shut against the light. "Is that your blanket?"

"No, officer, we found it just a little while ago with the camera."

The policeman lowered the light and walked closer to her, saying "I suppose you thought you'd put it in the lost and found, huh?"

"Yes, we were just going over there now."

The policeman was the same height as Sayuri, short for a man. The patch made him look like a pirate. A very round, Asian pirate in a uniform. He walked up to her, inspected her with the flashlight for a moment or two then, looking at the blanket he smiled. "Aha! I found you, you little bastard." He plucked something off the blanket.

It was an eye.

Sayuri stared wide-eyed as the man took off his patch and lifted his head to place the eye, with its dangling optic nerve, into his empty socket. He blinked a few times, looking for all the world like he had just put in a contact lens. Then he addressed Sayuri casually. "I don't suppose you'll let me take that blanket and camera? It's sort of evidence in a murder investigation."

"What do you mean, 'sort of'?" Yuka asked.

"We're done investigating. The murderer was killed. Open and shut case. I had my eye on him the whole time. It's just that he owned that blanket and camera that you're carrying, and after he died they both flew over here somehow. It's a bit curious."

A blanket and camera flying ANYWHERE was more than curious. Besides, murder? "Take it," Sayuri said quickly, holding the blanket and camera out to the officer. She no longer wanted anything to do with the two items. Strangely, though, she felt as if she was betraying them somehow.

The officer moved to accept them. She tried to keep her arms out, but she felt a wave of panic and brought the blanket close to her again. The more she tried to release her grip the more tightly she squeezed it until, like sand slipping through her fingers the blanket was gone.

"Psh." The officer rolled his eyes. "That's what I thought. Fucking demons. Ah well. It's yours now. Try not to kill anybody." With that he walked off, grumbling about something.

"Wait!" Sayuri yelled after a few moments spent coming to grips with the idea that the blanket and camera she had been holding were now apparently gone. The next moment, as the officer stopped, she realized something else. The blanket and camera _weren't_ gone. She could _feel _them. She backpedaled mentally, changing the question she was going to ask from "What the hell just happened?" to "What do you mean demons?"

Hearing the question, the officer turned around. His eye glowed dark red. "I mean," he said, his voice taking on a growl and a tone that was at once both angry and condescending, "spiritual parasites that invade your body, feed off your soul and force you to do bad things. Ask your parents about it. Or your friend there," the officer nodded toward Akane, "she has a demon of her own. Me, I've had enough stupidity for one night. I'm off duty and late for my beer appointment. I hope I never see you again, but I probably will." He waved her off lazily as he turned back around and trudged through the loose sand to his car.

"What a rude person," Yuka noted.

"Akane?" Sayuri asked.

"Yes?"

"You know how you said to tell you the moment anything strange happened to me?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm pretty sure this qualifies."

* * *

faith

* * *

Kasumi poured tea first into Tofu's cup and then her own. Sitting down, she blew some of the heat off the tea and sipped slowly, closing her eyes and letting the warmth fill her. There was a slight chill this evening, a pernicious shiver that she couldn't quite quell with warmer clothing. Turning the heater on would be overkill and would waste energy, especially with her and Tofu being the only ones inside. It was a little too early for the furo. This was the best solution. 

"Thanks, Kasumi," Tofu said needlessly. Still, Kasumi smiled and nodded in appreciation. Tofu still acted a little silly around her from time to time, but it was a good silly, not a potentially fatal silly.

Kasumi let her thoughts drift. She had been so happy on their date two nights ago, now… It wasn't fair. That's what it came down to. Kasumi realized it was a rather petulant argument, but that was it. She had given up on being a doctor. That dream seemed so far away now. She had decided her family was more important and she did not regret the decision. But then, with Auntie Saotome coming so often and Tofu opening up to her, it made her think she could have more.

"Do you think we should talk about it?" Tofu asked.

Kasumi nodded.

Tofu and she each took a sip of tea before Tofu started. "We don't know exactly what it means. It could just mean that we'll get married. That would be nice wouldn't it?"

Kasumi shook her head. "The words came with the vision.' The two will become one' doesn't mean we'll be joined. We'll actually become one person. Either one of us will die, or we'll merge somehow. Either way, we'll be alone again."

"What happened eleven years ago? Why can't I remember all of it? What's this Awakening?"

"Who knows?" Kasumi riposted. "It seems like the kinds of stories the nuns would tell us at St. Hebereke's. Armageddon, Judgment day, the Apocalypse." Kasumi had gone through grammar school at St. Hebereke's back before it became a high school…and before her mother died.

Tofu gave a small laugh. "That would make Ranma the Antichrist."

Kasumi took a thoughtful sip of her tea and then sat the cup down on the table. "But the nuns would also tell us God's plan for us is often mysterious, and that He gave all of us free will. I think that includes any possible Antichrists. Regardless of the situation, we have to try to make the right decisions and help others do the same."

"We're home!" Ranma-chan called out from the side entrance.

"Speak of the devil," Tofu quipped.

Kasumi smiled as she got up to answer the door. "Come in!" she called out as she walked past the steps to the doorway.

Ranma-chan was accompanied by her mother and boy-Nabiki. Ranko was wearing a thin blue sweater and a black…no it wasn't a skirt, it was a pair of pants but it was loose enough in the leg and of soft enough material to make the difference academic. "That's a lovely outfit, Ranko." Kasumi noted.

"Yeah, we went shopping." Ranma lifted up her bag and Nabiki nodded lifting up his. Nabiki wore a dark green dress shirt over an orange t-shirt tucked into black jeans. He was lanky and attractive despite the haircut, which on a boy made one think of a foppish prince in a period film. Kasumi wondered how Nabiki withstood the experience of shopping as a boy. It had to have at least been different.

Nabiki nudged Ranma and she spoke again, "Oh yeah, uh, Nabiki said she was going to stay at Ami's house tonight. This is Hotaru, my er…boyfriend. Is it all right if sh…he stays over?"

Kasumi couldn't help raising an eyebrow. Even if it was part of a ruse, Ranma claiming someone as his boyfriend was a bit alarming. Kasumi recovered, smiling and playing the game she usually played when someone close to her wanted her to lie. She just pretended it was the truth. This wasn't Nabiki and Ranma, her sister and future brother-in-law; this was her cousin Ranko and her boyfriend. "That's fine, Ranko-chan, but I don't think it would be proper for you to stay in the same room. The house is a little empty right now anyway. You can sleep in Akane's room if you want, and Hotaru-kun can sleep in Nabiki's room, just as long as he doesn't disturb anything. I'm afraid Nabiki-chan is a little fussy about her possessions."

"Actually…" Ranko grimaced, "Akane and me aren't on the best of terms right now. I think I'll sleep with Auntie Saotome. By the way, if Akane comes back for some odd reason, could you tell her I said sorry?"

"Of course, Ranko," Kasumi smiled. Ranko usually slept with Akane when Auntie Saotome came to visit. What with the nature of their respective nightmares, Ranko and her mother simply weren't compatible sleep mates. "I think there's still some rope in Grandfather Happosai's room if you need help tucking yourself in." Ranma's nightmares always picked up steam when his mother was around. The rope kept anybody from getting hurt.

"Thanks, Kasumi-oneechan. I'll show Hotaru where Nabiki's room is. Are you okay, Auntie Saotome?"

"I'm fine, dear, thank you," Nodoka nodded, "I know my way around."

Ranko gave her mother one of her sad little looks, the one that showed how much she wished she could hug her mother, and be her child rather than some pseudo relative. The look was only there for a second and then it was gone, Ranma replaced it with a polite smile and bowed slightly herself before escorting "Hotaru" upstairs.

"Tofu and I are having tea, would you care to join us?" Kasumi offered.

"I wouldn't want to intrude…" Auntie Saotome said putting a hand up.

"You wouldn't be intruding. I have enough tea for everybody." Kasumi insisted.

"No thank you, I'm tired and I'd like to get every thing ready for bed early."

Kasumi smiled. Nodoka was a true Japanese. Wait to be offered three times before accepting any kindness. "If you don't accept, it will just go to waste. Please." Kasumi motioned to the kitchen.

Nodoka bowed, "Alright, maybe I will have some. There's a chill in the air tonight. Something hot might do me good."

Kasumi's conversation with Tofu had ended the moment the other's had arrived, but Kasumi hadn't liked the seriousness of it anyway. Paradoxically, having Nodoka there allowed her to be closer to Tofu. She sat next to him, leaning into him and clasping his warm, strong hand in hers. Tofu's most impressive feature was his hands. Strong enough to set a misaligned spine, delicate enough to make the most perfect of stitches.

Nodoka asked how things were going, if she and Tofu had set a date, whether Kasumi wanted children. All wonderful questions. Hopeful questions. Maybe there was no hope, but it was nice to pretend.

And Kasumi was good at pretending.

All too soon, the tea ran out, Tofu went back to the clinic, and Nodoka left to get ready for bed. Kasumi was just putting away the dishes when Ranko entered the kitchen.

"Kasumi-oneechan," she said, "do you have a minute? I need to talk with you about something."

"Certainly, Ranma-chan," Kasumi said, figuring there was enough privacy that she could drop the "Ranko".

"Kasumi I think you should know. Nabiki and me…we've changed, Kasumi. We've killed. "

"You've killed?"

Ranma nodded. "I killed Copycat Ken. He killed Hoko and several other people, but he was being controlled by a demon or something. It escaped after I killed him. It was this huge segmented worm thingy with a circular mouth. I sliced through a couple of segments and there was this blue mist. It gave Nabiki the memory of killing Hoko. Copycat used her body to do it, you see, and now even though she knows she didn't do it, it doesn't matter. It still feels real."

"You two have gotten really close," Kasumi noted, concentrating on the positive aspect of what she was hearing, rather than attempting to understand it all.

Ranma nodded. "We're practically the same person. We're just specialized now. She's put all her emotions into me and I've put all my…whatever the opposite of emotions are, I put that into her. That's why she's a guy now and I'm a girl. I couldn't deal with this stuff as a guy."

"Is there more?"

"Yes. You know I'm fighting myself just to be here? Part of me wants to escape. Part of me thinks you're just a nice human who'll nonetheless try to trap me. I've joined with the Nekoken. I have control over it now, but in some ways it's worse than before. I'm afraid I might slip, go completely cat. The Thyself Known is working, I know who I am now, Kasumi, but I'm not Ranma, and Nabiki's not Nabiki. We're something different. It scares both of us." Ranma's eyes were brimming with tears. It was strange that somehow that this fragile, deadly creature had been a part of both Ranma and Nabiki, and yet neither of them would have ever acted this way before.

Then Kasumi remembered Nabiki's gun. She closed her eyes and embraced the redheaded girl. "It's okay," she said, "It's okay."

"I love you, Kasumi-oneechan. You saved my life…when I was Nabiki. I'm afraid, Kasumi. I'm so afraid I'll do something terrible."

Kasumi wasn't completely sure what Ranma was talking about now, but she held the sobbing girl close to her. "I love you too imoto-chan," she said, because it felt right. "It will be okay, little sister."

She could feel the girl relax in her embrace as her sobs began to gradually subside. They rocked back and forth in their embrace. Something clicked in Kasumi's head and she said, "No matter what happens, no matter whether you're Ranma, Ranko, Nabiki, or Hotaru, we'll always be family."

"Thank you, Kasumi-oneesama," Ranma whispered. "Thank you."

Kasumi felt the wheels of fate turn around her. If Ranma was her family, she would not be able to harm him. That could have potentially disastrous consequences. The future was still uncertain, Ranma's destiny and that of Nerima was still unclear. If Ranma fought with the demons against humanity he would be her adversary. But that was the future. For now, there was only her sister/brother who needed her love. For now, she would have faith.

* * *

control

* * *

The Tendo dojo was quiet and cold. Hotaru's bare feet were practically ice cubes, but he was determined to get this right. He went for a crescent kick leading up to a frenzy of punches, only instead Hotaru fell on his ass, cursing out loud, for the third time that night. It was so frustrating. He had the kata right there in his mind, but he just couldn't execute it. He didn't have the flexibility or the power, or the muscle memory. It just wasn't there. 

He didn't have any misconceptions. Sure he had some weird abilities, like the nekoken and motorcycle stuff, but he wouldn't be any good in fight, and he was sure there were going to be fights. His ki didn't work like Ranko's. For some reason he couldn't just let it flow out of him all the time. It was either on full blast or not at all. And after he used it, it took a good minute to recover.

He had to get better. He had to or next time…

Next time he might kill someone…again.

He felt everything Ranko felt, but it was all oddly warped. He couldn't just let the feeling wash over him like she could. He had to do something. His pain converted directly into anger, and that was something else that was keeping him from performing the kata correctly. Even before Ranma received the curse it was the more, for want of a better term, feminine aspect of him that allowed him to be so graceful and to achieve the peace he attained when performing his katas. Hotaru didn't even have that now, which annoyed him even further. He had given most of his femininity to Ranko once they had gotten back so she could talk with Kasumi. He hoped it worked, and he hoped Ranko was quick about it.

Hotaru enjoyed being a man more than he had expected, but he kept running into surprising deficiencies. People just didn't realize how much they needed a balance of masculine and feminine to even function in the world.

Hotaru adopted a horse stance and punched the air to work out some frustration. He hated thinking of it as masculine and feminine energy, it seemed so sexist, but what else could he call it? If you had too much of one you were a mad person, all action and no emotion, if you had too much of the other you were a blubbering mess, all emotion and no action. He would be relieved when he could be his old self again. Sure he'd have to play Hotaru for Auntie Saotome, but he could be Nabiki in his own room couldn't he? Maybe he could leave for a bit and come back as Nabiki. But then he'd have to leave Ranko. Even at this distance from her he could feel himself slipping, he didn't know into what. He didn't want to know. He just wanted to _do_ something.

The punching wasn't doing anything for him. He was about to try kicking when he heard a knock at the dojo entrance. He turned to find Shampoo and Ukyo standing in the doorway.

"What do you want?" he asked, not able to stop himself from being rude. He was a bit upset at Shampoo for trying to steal his…well that was weird wasn't it? It was the cat in him that had the problem. But while he was upset about almost losing his mate, the quarrel had been between two female cats over a male. Now Hotaru was the male and Shampoo was still female. The antagonism just didn't have any place to go. Hotaru sucked in air. If he wasn't careful, he would start to be attracted to Shampoo. She was still in heat, though she was almost out of it now.

"Who you?" Shampoo asked a little more breathily than she had probably intended.

"That depends," Hotaru hedged, "on what your intentions are."

Ukyo spoke up. "We're here to issue a challenge to Ranma Saotome and Nabiki Tendo."

"They aren't here," Hotaru snapped.

Ukyo looked at Shampoo, who was rather fixated on Hotaru, and then she looked back. "You have a cat curse or something?" She asked.

"Something like that," Hotaru allowed.

"You free tomorrow? I make too too good ramen for you. I learn to make Okonomiyaki too if like…"

Shampoo made an enticing offer. Her…assets were considerable. Not to mention her huge…tracts of land. And she had the nekoken inside her. And she was in heat. It also didn't help that Shampoo's new short hairstyle and the tight okonomiyaki chef uniform appealed to the libido Hotaru had borrowed from Ranma.

"Easy, sugar." Ukyo admonished Shampoo. "Remember, it's all pheromones."

"I like fair moan." Shampoo said in what was almost a trance. She stepped closer. "I want more fair moan."

Hotaru clenched his eyes shut. _Get it together. I have to control this situation. This isn't right. I'm really a girl. I'm Nabiki Tendo, this is just a s__hort term thing and besides I'm with Ranko now and…_Hotaru shook his head, _Why the hell am I even entertaining this. Just get control of the situation…just. _Hotaru opened his eyes. "I'll let you know how to reach Ranma and Nabiki…for a small fee."

Ukyo's eyebrow arched up. "Ah…I see. So how did you turn male, Nabiki?"

_Damn them. Damn their feminine whiles,_ Hotaru thought sourly.

"This…Nabiki?" Shampoo looked disgusted, but not quite disgusted enough.

Hotaru sighed. "Look, Auntie Saotome is here, so Ranma has to be Ranko. Remember Ranma's curse started changing with his thoughts? We had to do something to keep him from changing. This," Hotaru gestured to himself, "Is the result. By the way, my name's Hotaru Takahata while Auntie is here. I'm 'Ranko's' 'boyfriend'." Hotaru made quotation mark hand signs on both "Ranko" and "boyfriend."

Ukyo nodded slowly. Then a smirk appeared on her face and she finally erupted into laughter.

"What so funny?" Shampoo asked.

"Oh…" Ukyo said between guffaws, "how… the mighty…have fallen! Tendo Nabiki, the great manipulator of men forced to be Ranchan's boyfriend!"

"I wasn't exactly 'forced'" Hotaru grumbled.

"You used him for a year, but then he ended up beating you at your own game, didn't he? Ranchan never loses! 'Oh please, Nabiki, you big stud you, please help me hide from my mother, won't you?'" Ukyo put on the act, batting her eyes impressively.

When she stopped, though, Ukyo was serious. "Nabiki, or Hotaru or whoever you want to be. You…are a jackass. You had this whole mystique going, like you knew everything. But you didn't, did you? The only thing you had going was that you didn't get involved. You were Switzerland, and you held everybody's bank accounts. Well the bank's closed now, sugar. You're going to war."

"Ranko loves me, and I love her. There's no war going on. It's all been decided already," Hotaru countered, but it sounded weak even before Ukyo responded.

"Funny. That's what I said just before Ranchan…RANMA and his father ran off with my dowry. And having to watch him with Akane and Shampoo…But it was all okay, because he loved me and I loved him. And then one night I see him fucking Miss Switzerland on the evening news. Well I think I'm owed a little vengeance. And Shampoo over here, she's got a nice little score to settle too…as soon as she gets out of the bucket of shit pickles her curse has forced her into anyway."

Ukyo took a piece of paper out of the flap of her uniform and stuck it to the side of the dojo entrance with a throwing spatula. "So, if you happen to see Tendo Nabiki or Saotome Ranma, you tell them to meet us in two weeks at the abandoned lot, in their correct forms, or else they'll be revealed as the honorless, jackass, shitfaced, bastard fucks they are."

Ukyo turned and left, dragging Shampoo along with her. She had walked almost out of eyesight in the night before Hotaru snapped out of his daze. "Oh…Oh yeah?" he called out, "Well, I never liked your okonomiyaki anyway!" Not quite satisfied with this, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled "It tastes like paper maché!"

Even after the two former fiancees were gone, Ukyo's words continued to linger in the air. Nabiki would have been able to handle that situation so much better. But Hotaru wasn't Nabiki anymore. He looked around the dojo. _Why am I here? This isn't me. _

He looked at his hand, wider, less graceful than his normal one, and felt a surge of panic. He tried turning female, but he couldn't. Ranko took too much. The room seemed to spin. Energy built up within him. _I've got to hold on to it, _he thought desperately, _I can't let it go or I could die. _But his control was slipping. A green light sputtered around him and then grew like a flame all over his body.

A second before he passed out, he realized he was no longer touching the floor.

* * *

author's note

* * *

This SHOULD be the final version. Sorry it took so long. Thanks to everyone who gave comments. And if you're still with me after all this time, then thank you for your patience. As soon as they invent a machine that can stop time I'll be able to pump these suckers out at you. Until then... 

If you like my writing, you should know that I am now published. A short story of mine, titled _Company Positions_ made it onto a print magazine called _The First Line_. You can buy it online at double U double U double U dot thefirstline dot com. in the Fall 2007 issue. You can get an issue for about three bucks and there's a whole bunch of interesting stories in there, not just mine. There's one about a professor's thoughts during a terrorist takeover and another about a man who gets into trouble for making up verbs. My story is about a future where there are only five companies and they have taken over the world. Good stuff. If you do not like my writing and are only reading this for some strange, masochistic thrill, you might want to check it out anyway. I've heard a rumor from a swarthy old man with a salt and pepper beard I met once in a pub near the Baltimore harbor that hidden in the pages of one of the issues of The First Line is a map to the famous Fountain of Youth saught by Ponce de Leon and counless others. Apparently it's somewhere in Plano, Texas. Who knew. Anyway, if you do not buy a copy of the magazine you will never know the secret.

Of course you probably won't ever know the secret anyway. But there's always a chance. You could always wait for Darth Vader to knock on your door. There are probably equal opportunities of either thing happening. But ask yourself, would you rather know where the fountain of Youth is? Or would you rather meet Darth Vader? And I don't mean James Earl Jones, or some kid in a DV costume, I mean pissed off, used to be a whiny asshole, choke you with his mind Darth. And no, you don't get a lightsaber or jedi powers. Um...dang it. Still seems cooler to see Darth Vader. Okay imagine a gigantic wooden badger falling on you from a great distance. That's what may happen if you don't buy the Fall 07 issue of The First Line. Course it may happen anyway. It might not happen at all. But are you willing to take that risk? Even now as you read this there could be a team of over productive wasps building a nest out of wood pulp in the shape of a badger up in the clouds directly above your home. It's not likely, but it's POSSIBLE. That's all I'm saying.

I plan to keep on writing fanfiction as long as people continue to comment on my stuff. It may take me a while, but I'll get it done. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and hopefully I can get the next chapter done more quickly for you guys.

It gets weirder.

10/6/07 finishing touches.

8/23/07 Did some major editing. Not as bad as I thought, though.

2/3/07 Fixed Grave of the Fireflies reference and word wrapped txt version for ffml

1/18/07- First draft was actually done pretty quickly, but I got some sobering critiques.


	11. Demons

Thyself Known

a Ranma ½ fanfiction by Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: Johnny wiped the sweat off his brow, and formed a solid grip on the wood of the bat. The bases were loaded at the ninth inning with two outs, and if he could just hit the ball even a little bit there was a chance he could be a hero. He concentrated on the pitcher, trying to pick up any clues about what kind of ball he was going to throw. The pitcher wound up, lifted his knee and let loose the ball. Gauging the trajectory as much as possible, Johnny swung with all his might… but unfortunately Ranma ½ and characters and situations from the show are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi and various affiliate companies, and not the author of this work.

~~~~~Ch.11: Demons~~~~~

"_When one rows, it is not the rowing which moves the ship: rowing is only a magical ceremony by means of which one compels a demon to move the ship."_

-Friedrich Nietzsche

~~~~~madness~~~~~

The Tendos were such louts, Kodachi mused. They couldn't even be bothered to move the tree that fell on their property. What an eye sore.

Kodachi perched on the thick branch of one of the trees that was still standing on the Tendo property, along with two of her ninja, waiting for Shampoo and Ukyo to leave the dojo. A foreigner and a merchant, they were truly no match for her beauty and upbringing. Were it only them, she might have made an appearance and taunted them for their lack of sophistication or, indeed, talent. But they were talking to Tendo Nabiki, as was plainly evident by the content of the loud one's coarse speech. That meant her target was here and she should exercise caution.

Another reason she found to exercise caution was that were it not for the obvious impossibility of such a thing, Kodachi would have sworn that the Nabiki Ukyo and Shampoo were talking to was actually a man. Was this all some elaborate farce for her benefit? But that slop hocker Ukyo wasn't good enough an actress to pull off the anger she was emoting. It was all very curious.

She waited a few minutes after Ukyo and Shampoo departed to be sure that Ranma-sama wasn't around. She needed to deal with Nabiki alone first. She would force the girl to admit her worthlessness, (she had equipment back at the Kuno mansion that she really wanted to try out), and then she would show her beloved the pathetic little peasant whore's true nature. Kodachi had seen Nabiki's desperate display on the news the previous night. She could do so much better. She would show Ranma that Nabiki was nothing but a manipulative little slut. Then she would force Ranma to have sex with her and he would see that Kodachi was the only one worthy of his godliness.

A green glow emanated from the Tendo dojo, disrupting Kodachi's thoughts. It grew slowly brighter as she watched, like the diffuse light from a spinning fire works display, or the light from a firefly, and then it was extinguished, and a cloud of smoke, or fog, or something similar issued from the open doorway.

Kodachi blinked, all the thoughts in her head quieting to a dull murmur as she watched the nebulous form rise.

The nature of the mist was decidedly not natural. It was driven by imperceptible winds, almost as if it were alive, and searching for something. With alarming speed, it rose and coalesced about Kodachi's hiding place. She sucked in a breath, eyes wide. What was this? Magic?

Kodachi felt a sickening sensation as the fog thing touched her. She desperately attempted to wave it away with hands, but it didn't disperse at all. Kodachi's heart raced, what was this nightmare? But then it left, seeming to do so of its own accord.

This, along with the male visage Kodachi had witnessed talking in Nabiki's place, forced her to make some disturbing conclusions.

There was something supernatural going on with the Tendo girl.

She turned to Orochimaru, her second best ninja after Sasuke. "Assess the situation and report back to me," she ordered in a harsh whisper. The four-foot tall, and very pale practitioner of the dark arts nodded and promptly fell off the tree branch with a loud crash.

Kodachi grimaced. As much as a fool as Sasuke was, he could at least be counted on to be _somewhat_ competent. Unfortunately, he was no longer completely loyal. The Tendos poisoned his mind against the Kuno family much the same way they brainwashed Ranma-sama. It was all extremely frustrating. Of course the only way to have some one love you is to brainwash them, but Kodachi had always thought she was the best at it. Her tactics had worked fine on the other men to whom she had taken a fancy, yet Ranma seemed, if anything, to avoid her. She had thought that it was his superior willpower that kept him from her, and so she had attempted numerous times to destroy those barriers to her happiness, but nothing she did seemed to work. Sasuke's growing adulation of the Tendos however, led Kodachi to suspect there was something else at work.

Orochimaru and the other ninja she brought with her, Kabuto, were Sasuke's subordinates. They seemed to be from the same stagnant gene pool as Sasuke, only Orochimaru was pale and prone to fainting spells, while Kabuto had long, white hair and was abysmally nearsighted. One just couldn't get quality ninja nowadays.

Orochimaru managed to right himself and moved in a black blur of speed from the base of the tree Kodachi and Kabuto were perched in to the side of the dojo entrance. Using a hand mirror, he surveyed the inside and after a short time, he gave the sign to come quickly.

Kodachi leapt from the tree, touching down gracefully as Kabuto fell on his face. She bounded to Orochimaru practicing a few flips on the way. "Nabiki is lying unconscious in the dojo, mistress Kuno," he whispered when she arrived on the scene, "but we don't have much time."

Kodachi nodded. She entered the dojo quickly, assessing the situation herself with a quick scan of the room. It was just as Orochimaru said. Nabiki was practically gift wrapped for her. Already unconscious. She had to be careful though. Unlike the other harpies that vied for Ranma-sama's affection, Nabiki had some smattering of intelligence. And she apparently had the ability to craft illusions about her person and release some sort of sentient mist.

Kodachi ceased her approach, caught by the realization that maybe she would have to alter her plans. Nabiki could not be human. There was no way a human could cause a green glow like that, or make that wicked fog thing. Apparently Nabiki was some sort of kitsune. A shape shifter, a fox spirit, a mischievous worker of illusion. And if Nabiki was a kitsune, perhaps SHE was the reason for both Ranma's and Sasuke's inability to see Kodachi's otherwise obvious superiority.

Her hand moved to the battle ribbon she kept in her hair. This creature could not be allowed to survive!

Kodachi took a breath. This was not the place for murderous acts. She would just have to kill Nabiki when she was back at the mansion. She just had to be careful. As defenseless as the creature seemed lying motionless on the torn tatami floor of the dojo, there was no telling what mischief it might wreak.

She retrieved a single black rose from her hair, placed it under Nabiki's nose and triggered the gas release mechanism. Now Nabiki would be paralyzed regardless of her mental state. Assuming of course that kitsune physiology was similar enough to that of a human's for the gas to be effective.

Gases being unpredictable by nature, Kodachi herself had made sure to develop an immunity to the airborne toxin in case there was a strong breeze or some other trick of the weather. In fact, she had gotten to the point where she rather liked the buzz she seemed to feel from it.

Kodachi allowed herself a brief explosive chuckle at Nabiki being so incapacitated before she stifled herself. Soon Ranma-sama would be free of Nabiki's influence. Soon, she would be able to bend him to her will.

Directing Orochimaru and Kabuto to take the wretched ersatz girl back to the Kuno mansion, she had her minions leave a bouquet of roses to go off as soon as someone entered the dojo. This time she used a sleeping gas, which was a little slower to act but lasted longer as well. Also, Ranma-sama would likely be the first one in the dojo, and while he was almost as immune to the paralysis gas as she was by now, he had less resistance to the sleep gas. It wouldn't do to have him catch her before she had time to show him how mistaken he was about his infatuation with the kitsune. So while she left him the tiny inconvenience of a highly potent sedative in a time released capsule, it was just to slow him down a little so she'd have time to prove her love to him.

It made perfect sense.

Kodachi heard quick foot falls and looked toward the main building."Nabiki! Are you alright! I felt something!" The red-haired harridan who shared Ranma's name was running toward the dojo just as Kodachi was leaving. A moment passed, then the low born nuisance found her in the tree. "Kodachi! What did you do to her?" Signalling Orochimaru to toss her another sleep bouquet, this one a fast acting variant, Kodachi laughed as she spun the bouquet, directing the petals to fall toward the uncouth miscreant.

The idiot predictably thought the petals were for mere effect, and bounded through them toward Kodachi. The girl fell victim to the gas in a matter of moments.

Letting out another laugh as she saw the little worm collapse to the ground, Kodachi bounded off to follow her ninja charges to her home.

~~~~~searching~~~~~

The demon was not used to this.

Usually it waited. Usually its hosts would come to it, not the other way around.

Already it felt weak from the incense two days ago. The incense opened up all the doors in Ranma's mind, making all personalities and demons equal.

Ranma's psyche became a chaotic swirl. A bagful of demons of which the Jusenkyo demon was only one.

The demon escaped with Ranma's male form into Nabiki, but even across that short distance the form degraded from Ranma's form into merely his masculinity.

The demon tried to find sustenance in the Nabiki girl, but she had a powerful demon already and in a weakened state, it was unable to stand its ground.

Nabiki's demon, which she called Control, pushed the Jusenkyo demon out with a great expelling of energy.

Now the demon searched.

The girl in the leotard that had been in the tree had initially looked promising, but she would not work as a host.

She had very little soul left on which to feed, and a powerful demon was busy gnawing contentedly on the last shreds of her humanity.

Ranma was soon available, but there was nothing in the afflicted youth for the demon to latch onto any more.

While Ranma was becoming a girl, that was still not the youth's true form.

The martial artist was still in flux and was actually feeding off of the part of the Jusenkyo demon still inside…

… instead of the demon feeding off of the martial artist.

By the end of the week, if nothing changed, the youth would be truly female…

… then the demon would have a space to enter…

… but for now, reentering the Saotome child was about as desirable a prospect for the demon

… as a butcher would find sticking his right hand into a running meat grinder after already losing his left.

So it journeyed outward, even as it lost cohesion.

It found Kasumi, Nodoka,

….but these women were too centered. They knew who they were.

They were like smooth marble to Ranma's rusted, jagged metal.

They had desires,

…but they were all so cloying

…and sweet

…they were actually repulsive.

Out farther,

…less substance now.

…Farther down road.

…Ukyo.

…Almost.

…Not enough though.

…And scary. Doughy. A mercurial soul, desires form, get filled, change.

…Shampoo.

…Desire!

…So much desire! Like a hollow cave.

…But already a demon inside.

Two demons.

One a Jusenkyo demon like itself, the other a demon emissary of Bast.

…But those demons were completely ignoring the vast space of Shampoo's desire.

Like a dying man in the desert, the demon crawled into Shampoo's body. It found a source of new energy.

And drank.

~~~~~late~~~~~

Ukyo was tired. She no longer felt any anger toward Ranma or Nabiki or anyone else. Right now, all she wanted was to get back to her home and go to sleep. She would fight Ranma, and she would give it her all, but it would just be for closure now. Seeing Nabiki like that, it made her think.

Whoever loved Ranma would have to change for him, would have to adapt to his style. Could Ukyo do that really? Adapting yes, she was fine with doing that. But she had her own style. Could she allow herself to be changed like Nabiki was? Could she give up her dreams, for some contract signed by two buffoons so many years ago?

It was strange, but it was like Ukyo now had a choice similar to the one Ranma's father had given him. Ranma, or okonomiyaki? And okonomiyaki was the answer yet again. Ukyo chuckled mirthlessly. Perhaps the end to her chance at love came about because both she and Ranma loved Okonomiyaki more than each other.

Ukyo owned a restaurant now, and she was successful at it. That hadn't happened until she had settled in Nerima. Before, it was always brief stints at abandoned restaurants in various cities, just enough to get by and then leave. But she had been in Nerima for a year. She had regulars, and she could really no longer imagine leaving.

She was a woman too, and an attractive one. That she was aware of that was Ranma's fault as well, but it was no longer something she questioned. She would never be very feminine, she found dresses and lace impractical and down right silly. But she didn't feel the need to hide her figure either.

All the anger Ukyo had felt only a few minutes ago just seemed pointless now. And she still wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe she had grown up.

Ukyo watched the concrete pass slowly under her feet. The world was a massive boulder rolling inexorably into the future, and right now, walking next to Shampoo, a girl who she used to hate, but now seemed so lost and so much like she would have been were it not for her restaurant, right now she felt curiously old. Old and lonely.

"I so ashamed," Shampoo was looking down. She seemed fragile. Not like an amazon warrior at all.

"You've got no reason to be, Sugar. It's just your curse making you act like that."

Shampoo shook her head. "I think I love Ranma. Take him for husband. But it just fair moans. He really just strange boy. Like random mans on street."

"It's not that bad. Ranma had good qualities, you didn't just want him for his body." Of course Ukyo herself had accused Shampoo of just that many times. She winced at the irony.

"I not love him. I not want baby from him. He choose mercenary girl over me. Force me be cat for good soon. I so angry. So hurt. But he not know. He just react, just take what can get. He just want to be best. He like me in village. But I not like me in village anymore. I get weak being lovesick bimbo for him, and he just react. Fight everyone. Be everyone's enemy. Ranma make good amazon. Old ghoul right."

"Wait just a second, there, sugar. We didn't act any better, and just because what you said might be true, it doesn't mean Cologne's right."

"What it matter? Ranma girl now. Shampoo fail. Ukyo fail. We do challenge to make feel better, but at end of day I still doomed."

"Ranma is not a girl. Besides this thing with Nabiki can't last. Maybe when they break up one of us can console him."

Shampoo shook her head. "Boy-type Nabiki feel just like boy-type Ranma. Ranma curse already change one way. I think it change again. I think it move to others now."

"You mean…" Ukyo tried to wrap her head around what Shampoo was saying, "Ranma's contagious now?"

"Not Ranma. She girl now. Boy-type Nabiki. I think boy-type jump to other people now."

Ukyo patted herself quickly. She had everything she had before and no new additions. She was a little surprised at how relieved she felt. "We should warn people."

Shampoo nodded. "But I not know who to warn. Everyone I think of… deserve it."

Ukyo didn't like this new depressed Shampoo too much. She also didn't like how part of her agreed with her. If it wasn't for the restaurant, Ukyo felt she might just go on a homicidal rampage, just for shits and giggles. Instead she said, "Well, I don't know if they deserve it, but I don't exactly want to tell people at school to watch out for extra penises. I mean would it do any good anyway?"

Shampoo went quiet for a long moment as a wisp of fog drifted in from behind them, curling around their ankles.

"What is it?" Ukyo punctuated her question by kicking at the fog, which was annoyingly cold.

Shampoo laughed nervously and started walking briskly down the road. "Is nothing. Just odd thought."

"Come on, tell me," Ukyo pressed, keeping pace.

But then Shampoo stepped a little too forcefully into a puddle and the purple-headed girl was now a purple headed cat. Strangely the fog was suddenly gone.

Sighing, Ukyo shrugged, picked up Shampoo and kept walking, absently rubbing the fur on Shampoo's head. After a while, to Ukyo's surprise, Shampoo began purring.

Ukyo adjusted her hold on Shampoo, hoping for an arrangement that would be comfortable for them both. It was odd, but there was something different about Shampoo's cat form. Ukyo couldn't put her finger on what it was.

Until, accidently, she DID put her finger on what it was.

~~~~~pleasant grease~~~~~

As soon as Hoko entered her garage, she felt a wave of contented exhaustion.

She had taken Hiro on some of her favorite stretches of road, slaloming between cars when necessary, the g forces almost tearing them from the seat as the tires squealed in agony. The extra weight provided a challenge for her as she negotiated the turns, but it was the challenge she was looking for. She stayed on, kept control of the bike even when death seemed imminent. That semi that nearly hit her, or that construction zone that appeared out of nowhere. She hung on and maneuvered in split second intervals, doing pirouettes on the edge of destruction. It took a quick wit and an iron will, traits she never much showed anywhere other than on the road before.

That shit was going to change starting tomorrow. Hoko told herself. Life was too damned short to be shy. She gripped the handle tightly with her right hand as she guided the bike into the garage and stopped. The engine idled happily under her. They had had a good run. This was her bike. Her body. Her mind. This was her life, and she wasn't going to let anyone else take control of it.

"This is where you get off, Hiro-kun." Hoko said. "Maybe I'll call you sometime, ne?" She felt a thrill. She was underage and she wasn't even sure she liked Hiro, but he was cute and what the fuck. She could die tomorrow. Again.

Hiro got off the bike and took off the spare helmet. Then he took off his sunglasses, and even in the darkness of the garage with only her machine's headlight and the street lamp outside giving illumination, she could see Hiro's pale blue eyes. Kicking down the kickstand and turning off the engine and headlight, she got off the bike herself. She took off her helmet, static electricity making small sparks around her head as she did so. His eyes were all she could see now. His irises two pale rings in the night. She flew to them, standing on tiptoe until her lips found his. She kissed the fuck out of him, and kami-sama, he kissed back, embracing her and lifting her toward him like he was the moon and she the swollen sea.

And then, like the tide, his embrace receded. He stepped away. "You're seventeen," he said, "Maybe that shouldn't be a big deal, but damn it, it is. I'm a cop, it's how I'm wired."

"Come on, I turn 18 _next month_." Hoko marveled at Hiro's ridiculousness. The age of consent in Nerima was 18, but that varied by prefecture. In some areas of Japan she was already legal. Not that she was going to just sex the guy up in her parent's garage, though that might be fun... Point was, in principle, there shouldn't be a problem.

"Then we don't have long to wait."

Okay, Hiro had a point. Hoko wasn't sure if the whole age of consent thing was stupid or smart. Probably both. Like a red light on an empty street, sure you _can_ keep on going, but you've got to be more cautious. Maybe there's a cop around somewhere, or a speed demon zooming in from three o'clock. There was a subtle difference between flaunting the laws and completely ignoring them, but it was an important one. If Hiro lost his job or went to jail because of her, that would really suck. "Alright, but I'm expecting one hell of a birthday present." Hoko rethought the context of her statement and added, " And I mean like an expensive dinner somewhere. Not just your penis."

"Dinner and a penis?" Hiro chuckled, "Sounds good to me." Hiro paused, " When's your birthday?"

"It's on the tenth." Hoko said in a small voice. Suddenly there was a definite date for her deflowering. The end of innocence, the popping of the proverbial cherry. Was she ready for that?

Curiously the answer she found within herself was "YES." In fact she was rather anxious about it because…

Because she wasn't _really _a virgin was she? After what Copycat had done to her, she was far from "intact." Hoko clenched her fists against memories, the pain and revulsion. Maybe it was just trading one neurosis for another, but she would not, could not agree to that. Getting manhandled by somebody controlling your body against your will might be the same thing as rape, but it wasn't the same thing as sex. Or more precisely it most certainly wasn't making love. She WAS still a virgin in every way that counted.

She wanted her body to be hers. She wanted to wash away the evil in something beautiful, something she wanted. If she allowed herself to be led around by her hormones, that wasn't going to make things any better. She looked up at Hiro, his pale eyes seeming to glow in the darkness. "You will call me before then. You are now officially my boyfriend. We will date. We will get to know each other better, and then…"

"Coitus?" Hiro asked, smiling.

Hoko tried to smile back but she was still a little too raw from remembering what Copycat did to her. "I don't want to be a bitch, but I have to feel like I'm in control here okay? I'm a little fragile right now, still getting my shit together."

Hiro put his hands up, backing up to his bike as he said, "As long as you keep telling me to do things I already want to do, you can order me around as much as you want." Hiro swung his leg over his bike. "Hoko-chan" With that, he revved his engine, which after the roar of Hoko's jets, sounded a bit thin, like an old man grumbling into his beard. Nevertheless, Hiro still managed to look properly dashing as he spun around and zoomed out of Hoko's driveway.

Hoko waited until Hiro was out of sight and then squealed in delight. That was so cool! She had to call somebody. Nabiki!

A thought hit Hoko suddenly as she opened the door to her house. As far as Nabiki knew, she was still dead. True, Mrs. Saotome might have said something, but the lady had her own issues to deal with and Mrs. Saotome didn't really know Hoko's relationship with Nabiki.

It was getting kind of late, but Hoko had to call Nabiki tonight. She had to. Not only to let her know she was still alive but to find out what her friend had been going through the past couple of days. Last Hoko had seen her, Nabiki was somehow male and arm and arm with Ranma Saotome. That was something she had to know more about. She had seen Nabiki and Ranma get kind of chummy in Dr. Tofu's clinic yesterday when Copycat Ken was driving her body around, but she never got the whole story.

Running now into her home she almost knocked over her mother who was in her bathrobe and slippers. This she did NOT need.

"Where have you been? Some police officer takes you away and you don't get back until," Hoko's mom checked the grandfather clock in the hall, "Ten thirty? Ten thirty??? Where were you for three hours?"

Hoko held up a hand "I really don't have time for this right now, Mom, I've got to call Nabiki and..."

"And what? Tell her what's going on? I have an idea, let me fly this past you. Maybe you could tell your _mother_ who _loves_ you and would do anything for you what's going on and then maybe you could tell your friend with the loose morals all about it afterward. That sound good? Hmm?"

"Nabiki doesn't have loose morals!"

"Honey, I'm really being kind. Based on what I saw on the news last night I'm not entirely sure if Nabiki has any morals at all. Acting like that in public, in the middle of the street! Well, I'm sorry that's just not the way a young lady should behave."

"Yeah? Well maybe a young lady should behave however she damn well pleases!"

Mom just stared back at her, looking shocked. Hoko had never talked like that to her mother before. Ever. It actually shocked Hoko a bit too, but it also gave her a thrill.

"Tomo Hoko. What on earth possessed you to talk back like that?"

"That's a good question, Mom. What on earth possessed me? A freakin' sex pervert murdering bastard possessed me. I only just now got control of my body back thanks to that cop and probably Nabiki and Ranma loose morals and all. Not to mention this isn't even my real body. This is some weird copy. My real body is cut up into pieces and rotting in various dumpsters across town. And I'm sorry none this makes sense, Mom, I really am. I can barely make sense of it myself. I've been raped, murdered and brought back to life, and all I really want to do is fill in the gaps, figure out what happened and understand it maybe a little more. Can you help me do that, Mom? Do you even have a fucking clue what's going on?"

Mom was silent, her expression a study in shock and concern. Her mouth was open. She closed it.

"I didn't think so." Hoko ran the rest of the way upstairs into her room. She slammed the door behind her. She wiped tears from her face before she knew she was crying. She leaned back against the door and took a few shuddering breaths. _I'm being a bitch_, she realized. She opened the door. "I love you, Mom!" she cried out. And then softer, "I...I love you." And then she was in full out bawl mode leaning against the door frame as the tears poured down her cheeks.

A few minutes later she felt mom put her arm around her. She eased into the embrace, still blubbering uncontrollably. She hated crying like this. Not being able to stop. Nabiki never cried. Nabiki was always able to control her emotions. The best Hoko could do was ride them out. Sometimes, if she was lucky, she felt better afterward.

"I really can't imagine what you're going through, Sweety. I've never had anything like that happen to me. But I'm here for you. No matter what. "

Hoko took in and let out three shuddering breaths as her mother stroked her hair, then she felt her rising. "Your father should be back in a few minutes. He may be able to help."

"No. Mom, it's okay." Hoko wiped her tears away and stood up herself. "We don't need to tell him."

Mrs. Tomo shook her head. "We are going to tell him. One, because he is your father and he loves you _almost_ as much as I do. Two, because we do not keep secrets from each other in this family. And three," she lowered her eyes for a moment before continuing, "Your father may know a few things I don't."

"Like what?"

"Do you remember that earthquake that happened when you were six? The fire?"

Hoko frowned and shook her head. "That was eleven years ago I…"

~~~~~***~~~~~

Her mother is screaming. Everything hurts. It's hard to breathe. She feels panic rising. She feels like she's drowning but she's not in the water. It's outside. Night time. It's snowing. Her father picks her up and it hurts but she doesn't have any energy left to cry out. There's a wave of heat and light. It's not snowing; the white stuff that is coming down is ashes.

"What are you doing!" her mother cries out. The heat and light is all around her now and it hurts. Smoke fills her lungs and she coughs even though that hurts worse. Her father coughs too, causing his body to shake, sending a stab of pain hurtling through her. Then the heat begins to burn, and the burning hurts too, but it is a good kind of pain, like ripping off a bandaid. Her father sets her down and she realizes her clothing is burning. Flames are everywhere, everything is bright. Her father is burning too. Especially his eyes.

~~~~~***~~~~~~

"I remember." Hoko said, astonished. It was the memory of a child: broken and dreamlike, but it was a memory. It couldn't have really happened, she had probably been hallucinating from the smoke or something. She'd been burned after that, she got blisters and such just like everyone else. How could getting burned heal her?

But she had felt it. She had felt the heat melt her pain away, she had felt her father hold on to her, to keep her from drifting off, because she had been light as a feather, so light she could have flown away if it weren't for his grip.

No. There was no way that could have happened, Hoko decided. True she lived in Nerima and theoretically it was perfectly possible that she had some supernatural bent even before she was forced to dismember herself while under the thrall of a perverted doppelganger. Didn't she know a girl in junior high who could make little lights dance around her head? She had seemed normal too at first. But… no. Maybe the whole idea of 'normal' was fundamentally flawed, but still, her memory of being healed by fire after her father carried her back into a burning building, had to be some kind of trick or something.

There was no way her father could have ever been that cool.

~~~~~steam~~~~~

Akane sat in the onsen with Sayuri and Yuka, thinking. Thinking was her new favorite pastime it seemed. Making up for lost ground. The round person with the red eye said two curious things. One of them was that Sayuri now had some kind of parasitic soul sucker called a demon. Of course there were many things that were called demons, Akane herself being one of them, usually when she was in the kitchen, but this seemed different. Something older, something more dangerous.

The other curious thing was that Akane apparently had a demon inside her as well. She could of course dismiss this as some strange attempt to scare teenagers or something. If it weren't for Cologne releasing her from the effects of Shampoo's shampoo she might have done just that and enjoyed herself. The problem was Akane was almost positive the man was right about Sayuri, and so that meant he was probably right about everything else.

"How are you feeling, Sayuri? Any different? Any strange thoughts?" Akane asked for what must have been the eleventh time since they got into the onsen.

"No, Akane, for the last time if I notice anything I'll let you know okay?"

"So you still feel the camera and blanket?"

"YES! Okay? I know they're like invisible or something but they're inside me somehow. Like I could just reach in and pull out…GAH!" Sayuri yelped as she produced the camera in her hand, seemingly out of thin air. She dropped it in the onsen water and the camera floated there. It didn't sink, nor did it float in any way one might expect a camera to float. Instead it made a hemispherical indentation in the water and it seemed to hover a few centimeters above the surface. "Yeah. That's weird."

"But I don't get how that could be a demon," Yuka pointed out.

Akane meanwhile was wide eyed and felt her nerve center jangle like a 50 yen coin in a tin can. "But that's... It can't be." Akane closed her eyes. _Stop it Akane. Stop denying what's in front of you. You don't do that anymore remember? _ Akane took a breath. She let it out. "I think I know what the police officer was talking about. About me having a demon." Akane reached into null space and produced a wooden mallet.

"Wow," Sayuri said in subdued wonder. "I think I saw you do something like that before, but I always figured you just found something lying around."

Akane nodded looking at the perfectly normal looking oversized wooden mallet. "When I started fighting with Ranma I would hit him with anything that was around. Then sometimes there wouldn't be anything around and I would still… find things. I just shook it off as not a big deal. I just didn't see it before or something. But seeing what you just did with the camera..."

Yuka nodded, "Plus you aren't retarded anymore."

"Hey!" Akane protested.

"What? I'm just telling the truth. You used to be the smartest of us before that technique froze your mind."

Akane blushed. "That means a lot coming from you, Yuka. I don't believe it, but thanks."

"I guess I was never in the running, huh?" Sayuri asked sullenly.

Akane laughed nervously. She wanted to make the girl feel better but really aside from recent developments she was almost abnormally normal. "I don't know what me not being retarded, as you so tactfully put it, has to do with me having a demon."

Yuka shrugged. "Nothing, I suppose. I just think now there's a good chance of you being able to steal back the title of most popular girl in school from Ranma."

"Ranma's not a girl, Yuka." Akane said, trying to keep her anger in check. Ranma wasn't here. There was no reason to get angry, but simply hearing the name was enough to set her off.

"Except when he is. Didn't you tell us yesterday that it was his girl side you found the most frustrating?"

"I guess you're right. She's like the annoying new girl that has everything going for her and who everybody likes, and yet she thinks she's the one with all the problems. Only she's been the annoying new girl for, like, a year, and she's also a boy who I sort have crush on and ARGGGHHH! "

Yuka nodded sadly. "You've always been something of a joke, haven't you, Akane? Terrible cook, terrible swimmer, terrible martial artist."

Akane stood up "HEY! You take that…" Akane paused just before her mallet connected with Yuka's head. She sat back down. She let the mallet disappear into nullspace.

Yuka cocked her head to one side in thought. "How many times have you used that mallet?"

"I don't know. It's not always a mallet. I just kind of think of something I need and it appears."

"Ooh! Make a beach ball!" Sayuri exclaimed.

"What? I don't think…" Akane started.

"It shouldn't be a problem. A beach ball is an object same as a mallet. Unless you're too stupid to figure it out."

"I'm not stu-!" Akane paused as she suddenly found herself carrying a multicolored beach ball.

"Yay!" Sayuri squeed. "Toss it!"

Smiling Akane threw it over to Sayuri's side of the onsen. She batted back to Akane, and Akane batted it to Yuka. Yuka caught it.

"Make another one." She said.

Akane tried, but nothing happened. "I can do it!" she assured them and she closed her eyes.

"Uh, Akane?" Sayuri said.

"What?" Akane asked opening her eyes. The largest beach ball she had ever seen was now resting on top of all of their heads. The other beach ball was gone. "Sorry." Akane said sheepishly and the beach ball disappeared.

"Hmm, " Yuka said thoughtfully, "try two at the same time."

Akane went for it and suddenly there were two beach balls. There wasn't a pop of pressure or anything, one second there was nothing, then next, two beach balls.

"Yes," Yuka nodded. "Now try some thing extremely heavy. Like a large stone."

Akane shrugged. She suddenly felt a tremendous weight in her hand and she let go causing the meter-wide rock to sploosh in to the water next to her.

"Can you make it heavier?"

Akane tried again, she got distracted at first by the feel of the onsen water lightly brushing her skin as it filled in the space left by the first rock. Then she thought heavy heavy heavy. She again felt a weight in her hand, but it was more or less the same as before. She could hold it for just a moment before she let go.

"Far as I can tell," Yuka said, "there are two main limitations and a caveat. First you can only make an object with one thought at a time. You couldn't make one beach ball and then another, but if you thought 'two beach balls' you could do that because you could visualize two beach balls together. Second, you can only create something that you can carry. I suppose this makes sense, because otherwise you could accidentally crush yourself. Finally the caveat is that the more effort you put into it, the larger or more exaggerated the thing becomes."

Akane nodded, that made sense!

"Now for the scary dangerous bit." Yuka said. "Make a sword."

Akane put forth the effort and she felt a solid weight in her hand. She looked and there was a katana. It looked pretty sharp.

"Okay. That's scary enough but…try a gun."

Akane shook her head. "No. I'm not going there. I don't like guns. I can't even stand squirt guns. They creep me out."

"Right. I don't blame you. For proof of concept though, try making a radio."

"I'm actually kind of getting sick of this," Akane complained.

"I think this will be the last one."

"Fine" Akane shrugged and visualized a radio. A plastic radio, predictably now, appeared in her hand.

"Does it work?" Yuka asked.

Akane tried it out. She pushed the button and nothing happened.

"Let me see it," Yuka asked.

Akane handed it to her.

Yuka inspected it, feeling, hefting it up in the air a few times and finally shaking it. "Heh, you don't have to worry, Akane. You couldn't create a gun even if you wanted to. This radio doesn't have batteries or anything inside it. It's just a hunk of plastic with buttons. You can only create something you can visualize and you can't visualize all the parts of a radio because you don't know how it works. Chances are even if you did know how it works it would still be too complicated for you to visualize all at once and it would still not work. The human brain is only capable of thinking of seven things at once the theory goes."

"I'm kind of exhausted from all this, Yuka, I mean I guess we know a lot about my 'demon' though I still don't see why it's called that. Seems more like an ability than an entity. But now what?"

"The police officer said the demons were like parasites right?"

Akane nodded.

"Well different parasites are attracted to different things. Ticks like blood, tape worms steal nutrients from the digestive system, dust mites eat dead skin cells and so on. So these demons are probably the same. They attach to people based on certain personality traits that they can feed on. In your case, your demon feeds off your wish to be noticed, to be taken seriously. I don't think the trick with being able to materialize things out of thin air is the demon itself, but rather a side effect of its presence. As long as your desire to be acknowledged remains strong, the demon inside you will be content. You may have a problem though if you become content. If you start to be truly happy with how everyone treats you, well then the demon might show its uglier side."

"So I'm doomed to never be worth anything?" Akane's mood darkened. That sounded about right actually with how her track record had been going.

Yuka shook her head, "Not necessarily, but I think if you really want that you're going to have fight that thing inside you and either kill it, or become its master. I mean we all have demons inside us we have to fight, you just have to fight yours in a somewhat more literal sense."

"Well what about Sayuri?" Akane asked.

"Sayuri's demon is different. She can't change the objects. There must be something important about them. Whatever the case though, the thing I'm sure of now is that the demon latched on to her because she has something it wants. Some innate desire that it can feed off of."

"I don't have any innate desires." Sayuri said waving her hand in denial. "I'm not like you or Akane. I don't have anything I really want out of life. I kind of wish I did, but I don't." As soon as Sayuri said this, the blanket appeared under the water. It rose up slowly to cover Sayuri's body and then the blanket receded and disappeared. Where Sayuri had been sitting, there was now a perfect clone of Yuka.

Akane stared as several things clicked into place for her all at once. Copycat Ken! He had a blanket he could change form with, and he was always carrying around a camera too! But if the blanket and camera belonged to Ken why would Sayuri have it now? The police officer…what did he say? The blanket was sort of evidence in a murder investigation, but it wasn't needed anymore. Could Copycat Ken have been murdered? No, that didn't seem right. If Ken was murdered then the blanket and camera could still be used for evidence. Copycat Ken himself was the murderer! And he was killed and now…

The Yuka on the left was shaking her head grimly as she looked at the Yuka on the right. "I'm sorry, Sayuri, you always seem so happy all the time I never knew."

"Wha-what?" Sayuri asked, looking a bit startled at how her voice sounded.

"The desire for a purpose, to know who you are and what you want, I think that might be the strongest desire there is."

And now Sayuri was doomed to never reach that goal, to watch it slip further and further away the more she tried to reach it.

Akane remembered Copycat Ken's fight with Ranma. He kept trying to find the right form to fight Ranma, only none of them would work. He got more and more panicked changing form one after the other, until they started to blend in grotesque ways. Ranma had long since left him but Akane approached him, asked him if he was okay.

~~~~~***~~~~~

"I can't find it!" he yells in a myriad of different voices, "I can't find my real body!"

"Use mine for a while," Akane suggests, "You just need to calm down for a while."

Copycat Ken settles on her form and stops. "Thanks," he or rather she says. "You're probably right I just need to relax."

Akane nods and walked away, feeling better. But that is the last she ever sees of Copycat Ken.

~~~~~***~~~~~

"Sayuri." Akane said in a commanding tone she wasn't used to using. "Return to your true form. Now."

The Yuka on the right nodded slowly and using the blanket, returned to Sayuri's form.

"Take a picture of yourself."

"Huh, why?"

"Just do it."

Shrugging Sayuri did what Akane asked. The camera produced a photo out of the end.

"Let me see it," Akane ordered.

It wasn't a Polaroid, because it was rectangle shaped instead of square-shaped and already fully developed. Sayuri's face was large in the frame, but the picture was sharp enough. It was her. Akane gave the photo back to her. "Don't lose this photo, whatever you do." Akane said in a tone of such grave seriousness she surprised herself. "Do not forget who you are, Karakyou Sayuri"

"But, Akane…" Sayuri's eyes glinted with desperation and hope, "that's _exactly_ what I want to do!"

~~~~~shock~~~~~

"It's true Hoko-chan. We named you that for a reason. It was my mother's name and her mother's before that." Hoko's father stood before her. He had come home from work. He was wearing his suit. He was still slightly overweight. He still looked mostly the way he normally did. Except two large wings protruded from his back, and small fire was burning in the palm of his hand. It was either completely ridiculous or the most awesome thing Hoko had ever seen. Then again, this was Nerima, there was no reason why it couldn't be both.

"But I can't be a…" Hoko didn't want to say it. "I don't have wings, I don't control fire. I've never been to this Jusendo place you were talking about."

Her father, Tomo Seiji was a fairly tall man, who, aside from a light paunch, had managed to age gracefully, retaining much of his youthful charm. A lot of people thought he styled his gunmetal gray hair to make it wavy like it was, but he didn't. It was just naturally that way. Also at the moment, it was a rather bright shade of orange and it seemed to be glowing. "You're only an eighth phoenix. And since you had a replacement body when you died, the changes will come more slowly, maybe not at all. "

Her mother, Harumi, touched Seiji's arm lightly with her hand. "That night your father died saving you. The firemen rushed in to get you back out, but they didn't have time for your father. He burnt to ashes."

"The rest of it's kind of a cliché." Seiji smiled awkwardly. "As for controlling fire, you've been able to do that for at least three years."

"What?"

"Most people have to buy gas for their motorcycles, honey," Harumi said.

"They just don't know how to build them right," Hoko dismissed, "Nabiki doesn't need gas for hers either."

Seiji extinguished his flame and looked around. "I'm going to go back to full human form. I feel like I'm going to knock something over." With that, his wings disappeared and his hair went back to being a dynamic gray. He sat on the couch, picked up his cup of tea, sipped from it, and sat it back down, as if being a freaking phoenix wasn't a big deal. "Your friend Nabiki…I think she inherited some, if not all of her mother's powers. But as for you, if you don't believe me, go ahead and try it. Just imagine a flame coming from your…Yeah that's it, but please don't burn the carpet."

Hoko raised her hand up and was surprised to discover little flames popping in and out of existence in the air around it. The popping was very rhythmic, very precise, almost like…Hoko closed her eyes. Like a combustion engine.

"There's really only supposed to be one phoenix. Lord Saffron. If he knew about us he'd kill us until we were mindless birds. The original phoenix was just a very powerful, very magical creature without any human intelligence. But it decided to bathe in the waters of Jusenkyo. Nyannichuan to be precise. The same spring as that Ranma kid. Long story short, the girl that came out of that spring had kids, and those kids had kids and so on. The more the blood line gets diluted, the more times we can die, but in the end, the last incarnation we take is an egg, and after that we're no better than any other demon."

"Demon? Phoenixes aren't demons, are they?"

"Yes, they are. Demons feed off spiritual energy, either through people's belief in them or directly from an individual. A full phoenix would hatch from an egg and then immediately imprint on the closest source of spiritual energy available, usually a human being, and then feed off their energy until they've drained the person dry, or they become mature enough to no longer need to feed. "

"So that phoenix egg that Kuno found…"

Seiji nodded. "That was your grandmother."

"You're joking."

But Hoko's father looked dead serious.

"Okay, maybe you're not joking. Fine. What about Nabiki, what powers did she inherit? Is she some mythological creature too?"

Seiji looked at Harumi. "Ah, well Soun Tendo is a summoner. He has a demon that allows him to conjure up almost anything except what he truly needs. As for his wife, Kimiko…"

"Yeah?"

"Well, this is one of the reasons why your mother doesn't approve of you hanging around Nabiki so much. You see, Nabiki's mother was a sort of demon, or mythological creature if you want to call it that, that isn't generally regarded as being especially benevolent."

"Kimiko was so nice," Harumi said, "She was so good to her kids and Soun. I really couldn't believe it when I found out."

"Found out what?"

Harumi looked at her husband, took a breath, then told Hoko. "Kimiko's demon gave her the power of absolute manipulation. It's a very powerful demon that shows up periodically, usually where it's not wanted. You know the expression 'absolute power corrupts absolutely?' Well, as I said, I thought Kimiko was a very nice person, so maybe it's not as bad as all that, but the common name for the demon Kimiko had, and I suspect Nabiki has it as well…is Evil."

Hoko gasped. "You've got to be shitting me!"

Seiji raised his index finger angrily "Hey watch your language, young lady! "

~~~~~liquid warmth~~~~~

Genma swallowed the last of his sake and slammed the cup down on the wooden table with gusto. "Pah! This is the life, eh, Tendo?"

Soun nodded, sipping from his own glass, though his expression seemed to disagree.

"What is it? I thought you wanted to relax?"

Soun rubbed the bridge of his nose with one hand and fished in his pocket for a cigarette with the other. "I miss her." Soun patted a cigarette out of pack, pulled a match out of null space and used it to light the cigarette. The match disappeared with a flick of Soun's hand. "Eleven years. And it's like it happened only yesterday." Soun put the cigarette to his mouth and looked out the window as he inhaled the smoke. This late at night there was nothing to see out the window but blackness and Soun's ghostly reflection.

"You're starting to remember too, I take it." Genma was serious now.

"I couldn't save her. My blood limit was worthless. My skills in the art were nothing."

"Tendo, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. In another situation you would have prevailed. That creature was not natural, it could not be fought physically. Kirika died saving her family, just as you were prepared to do."

Soun gave Genma a level stare, and Genma lowered his eyes, not able to take the pain he saw in his friend.

~~~~~***~~~~~

Nerima is in bedlam as fires spire up from houses on either side of the street in the wake of the giant woman monster. "Are they safe?" Soun asks Genma. Soun is unarmored, waiting to know the nature of his enemy before summoning anything.

Genma nods. "The dojo's intact, and nothing's come up through the floorboards. Nodoka's keeping the kids calm."

"You should be in there with them," Soun says to his wife.

Kimiko, dressed in her kimono, torn purposely at mid thigh to allow her freedom of movement, and with her short wavy hair, gave her husband one of her graceful smiles. "My place is here with you, my husband."

Genma chuckles softly at this. What Kimiko is really saying is that she is as much a fighter as Soun and she isn't about to let her husband face their enemies alone. Still he wishes she would join the others inside as well, although for other reasons. Nodoka has Hayama should anything get past their defenses, but that might not be enough.

People are running out of their houses, some of them chased by oni or other low level demons that would do no more than terrorize their victims, though the victims could not know this. Genma, Soun, and Kimiko were watching for the ones that were doing more than just cruel pranks.

They don't see the enenra right away. The smoke from all the fire bellows and someone collapses. It's sad, but an otherwise natural occurrence. As much as they want to help there are worse dangers this night than smoke and they have to conserve their energy. It is Kimiko who first realizes that there is something more to the smoke.

"It's killing them!" she cries.

"What?" Soun looks around.

"The smoke! It's killing them!"

"I know, Ka-chan, but we have to guard the children. We can't…"

Genma shakes his head, "No, Tendo, that's not what she's saying. Look." Genma points as wispy tendrils of ink black smoke find a man running out of his home. The man takes three more steps and then collapses.

Soun's face goes pale even in the firelight. "Kami-sama! How do we fight something like that?"

Genma rubs his chin in thought. The creature is made of smoke, so physical attacks will likely be useless. "Maybe you could summon a giant vacuum cleaner? Or one of those things that turns smoke into dust?"

Soun shakes his head. "Too complicated. I could maybe do a fan, but it would have to be really large to have any effect."

Kimiko's hand lightly touches her husband's shoulder. "This is me." She kisses him and then addresses Soun and Genma both. "Back me up, boys." With that, she's off, running at full speed toward terrible danger.

The rest Genma remembers as though through clouded glass. He makes himself large the way the master had taught him, hoping to be able to wave the smoke demon way some how, while Soun, not sure what else to do, summons his armor and runs after his wife. Kimiko reaches the smoke and, though it has no face, it seems to acknowledge Kimiko as an opponent a split second before enveloping her in darkness. Kimiko sends her power out. An extension of her aura in shades of red. Kimiko so full of passion, so full of life. She wraps the smoke up in her own power and it begins to disintegrate, falling apart because Kimiko wills it to be so. But then the aura flickers, grows dimmer.

Something is wrong.

~~~~~***~~~~~

The doctors said it was lung cancer. But Kimiko had never smoked in her life. It was the demon she had killed. It had killed her as well. Kimiko had not died right a way, but she was quickly hospitalized, and she never recovered.

"I've always been a joke. I've never been able to do anything right. Before that day, I thought I was a hero. I thought that when it mattered, I could pull through. But it never mattered more than that day, and all I could do was watch that false enenra, that evil creature of smoke, suck the life out of my beloved." Soun pulled on his cigarette and blew out.

"And you think that letting smoke kill you the slow way is some kind of atonement for that? Tendo, you don't respond to failure by giving up. You respond by becoming stronger."

Soun smiled sadly. "You used to know me so well, Saotome. But I did give up. I've grown weak. I'm not the young man you once knew. It's been good having you here the past year, old friend, but the hurt's still there. Sometimes it gets so bad I can't even move. My daughters are all nearly grown. I tried to be there for them, but I know I wasn't. And the guilt just makes things worse."

Genma put a hand on his friend's shoulder. " Tendo, I keep telling you. Live in the now. Enjoy your sake, have a good time. Let the past pass." Genma stood up. "Either that, or stop loafing around and start being the man you're supposed to be. Whatever it is, do it now. As for me, I've got to take a piss."

Genma turned and left. Truth was, he didn't have to go to the bathroom all that much. Truth was, he was just as angry at himself for what happened to Kimiko, and now he was angry at Soun for it too, and if he stayed at that table a moment longer he would have exploded. But Genma believed what he told Soun. It was his mantra all through the years since the last awakening, and while it caused him a good deal of grief, it kept him moving. That and the contract he signed with Nodoka. Nodoka… and the Oiwa demon.

Genma banged open the restroom door with such force he almost knocked it off its hinges. It was necessary. There was no other way. Maybe if he had been smarter he could have figured something out, but he was only as smart as he was. He had done as well as he knew how to do. How could Soun be so selfish? How could he sit there smoking his cigarette while the rest of world continued to fall apart around him? There was so much at stake! And yet wasn't he, Genma, guilty of much of the same? Could he honestly say he was any better, rolling around as a panda, Playing shogi with Soun while Ranma dealt with whatever crisis occurred? Genma felt the soft buzz of the sake turn into the beginnings of a hangover. He leaned against the bathroom wall holding his temples. He had just wanted to forget everything tonight. Why couldn't Soun have just let him relax?

And what could he do now, anyway? Go back and start being a good dad all of a sudden? He had tried being a good father several times, but Ranma just laughed at him. He had screwed up so many times with the boy, there was no way he could make up for it. Was there love there? Sure. Maybe even a grudging respect, but Ranma wouldn't take anything Genma did seriously. And Genma didn't really deserve that. Not after the Nekoken. Not after Jusenkyo.

Genma sighed, walked to one of the holes in the floor the bar used as a urinal and let it all go.

There was something calming about knowing that you're damned beyond redemption.

Letting all his worries and regrets drain away with the contents of his bladder, Genma felt better. He still didn't know what to do about Ranma. But he couldn't do any worse than he already had.

Maybe Soun's problem was that he hadn't hit rock bottom yet. Maybe what Soun needed was some kind of training trip that could show him just how bad things could get. Nodding to himself, Genma collected himself and exited the restroom, ready to talk to his friend again.

Except Soun wasn't there. At their table there was only the empty cups and the bottle of sake. Genma went outside to check there and found a collection of black rose petals. When Genma touched one of them it made the tip of his finger go numb.

That Kodachi girl wasn't that crazy was she? Soun was her elder, and she was a traditional girl after a fashion. But Genma wasn't entirely sure how crazy Kodachi was, and he had a bad feeling. This was really NOT a good time for the Kuno girl's mischief. As precarious as things were, things could get bad real fast.

Genma went back inside. He eyed the sake bottle. Then the night outside. He sighed, dropped some money on the table and headed off toward the Kuno mansion.

~~~~~cold sharp grass~~~~~

"Ranko?" Ranko felt a hand gently jostle her shoulder. "Ranko-chan? Imoto-chan?" Younger sister. Someone was calling her their younger sister.

Ranko opened her eyes. She had fallen awkwardly in the grass, landing on her arm, which now itched with the indentations of the many blades. She sat up slowly, her head swimming. Kasumi stood over her, though only her outline was visible against the light from the streetlamp. "Oneesan" she said touching Kasumi's hand. "Thank you."

"Are you alright? I was looking for ah, your other half?"

Ranko felt Nabiki through her link. Nabiki was female. She was unconscious too. Something was very wrong. "She's Nabiki now, she's in danger. I have to…" Ranko tried to get up but she was still too dizzy.

Kasumi held her arm to keep her from falling. "Father and Uncle Saotome haven't returned yet either. It might be a coincidence, but I think you may have to visit one of your friends and see what's going on. Come inside first, though, and collect yourself."

A distant part of Ranko was impatient to leave and felt an urge to hurry to wherever Nabiki was, but Ranko was still too dizzy to walk, much less run, so she relented.

"I came out because a friend of Nabiki's called. Tomo Hoko? She said she wanted to let her know she was still alive and that there was something else she had to tell her. Do you know anything about that?"

Ranko felt a surge of joy pass through her. "Hoko's alive? Nabiki's been thinking she was killed all this time. She was taking it kinda hard. I'll be sure to tell her as soon as I save her."

"Do you know where she is?"

Ranko nodded regretting the motion as soon as she did. "She's at the Kunos. Kodachi kidnapped her. It might not be a big deal, but Kodachi is more... serious than some of my other... friends."

Kasumi nodded, not saying anything. It struck Ranko how Kasumi seemed less aloof than usual, more aware of the danger of the situation.

Inside the kitchen Kasumi released Ranko next to the table and fixed a pot of tea. It wasn't until after the water had been on the range for a few minutes that Kasumi spoke. "How are you going to save Nabiki, Ranko?"

"Hmm? I don't know, 'neechan. Same way as usual I guess," Ranko shrugged.

"Maybe you should call the police in this matter. From what I saw today and yesterday they seem competent."

Ranko frowned, "What's wrong, Kasumi? Kodachi might be a psycho, but I can handle 'er."

Kasumi was silent for a moment and then smiled. "As long as you feel confident about it, then I'll leave it to you, little sister."

Ranko was about to say something, and then a different sense of what Kasumi said sunk in. Was she confident? Well she hadn't really thought about it. Saving Nabiki was just something she had to do. But the more she thought about it, the more the idea of fighting Kodachi scared the shit out of her. What if she went too far? What if someone got hurt or killed? She wasn't sure she could go through that again.

The tea kettle began to make a sharp high pitched whistle which Kasumi cut off by putting the kettle on a cold burner. She poured two cups of tea and brought them to the table.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe we should see if the police could do something. I mean they have that weird martial artist policy, but Nabiki's not a martial artist so..." Ranko lowered her head. "Crap. I forgot, they changed her status after yesterday. Kodachi and Nabiki are both martial artists now, so the cops can't do anything." Ranko blew some of the heat off her tea and took a sip, willing it to wash the grogginess out of her system.

"But some of them are friends. Detective Inamura and Officer Kawagami seemed nice."

Ranko considered this. "I don't think Inamura could come, he's way too busy. Kawagami might though. I don't know his number, do you?"

Kasumi shook her head. "Tomo-san might though. I could just call her back."

Both of them deciding upon this course of action, Kasumi called the Tomo residence while Ranko, stood unsteadily, took a sip of tea and managed to reach the area next to the phone. When Kasumi got a response from Hoko, Ranko took the receiver. "Hoko-chan! I'm so glad you're alive!"

"Um…I'm glad too." There was a long pause.

"Hello?" Ranko spoke, "are ya still there?"

"Ranma?"

Ranko frowned. "Um…"she reached back to grab her pigtail to be sure. "Yeah."

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT! Is Nabiki there with you? I really want to speak with her."

Ranko felt an icicle stab her in the chest. This was Nabiki's friend. Not hers. Ranko didn't have any friends. She shook her head. She had Nabiki. She had Kasumi. She had her Mom even she could only act like an aunt and she had her Pops even if he was an idiot. She wasn't abandoned. Still, she felt something stir deep in her chest, so deep it almost seemed to be in her back...She shook off the feeling and responded. "Nabiki's kinda in a jam right now, actually. I was going to try to go save her, but I'm not...ah feelin' a hundred percent right now. I was wondering if you could get me in touch with officer Kawagami. I could use some back up."

"Couldn't you ask Ryoga, or Ukyo or somebody?"

Ranko smiled grimly. "C'mon, Hoko, you know my situation. Ukyo probably hates me and Ryoga is kinda difficult to contact what with him being somewhere between here and the Serengeti at any given moment. So you got Kawagami's number or not?"

"I know your situation, but how do you know that I know your situation? I don't think I ever spoke a word to you before." Ranko was about to respond when Hoko interrupted her, "You know what? Nevermind, there's probably some weird, fucked up reason why you know about me all of a sudden, and I've about had it with weird and fucked up. I can get in touch with him I think. Where is Nabiki?"

"Kuno Kodachi kidnapped her. She's probably got her in the mansion. Tell Kawagami to watch out for traps if he gets there before I do."

"Saotome?" Hoko said after a pause.

"What?"

"Nothing. You sounded just like Nabiki there for a moment. I guess we're going to have to have a nice big pow wow after we save Nabiki."

"Wait a minute, 'we?'"

"She's my best friend, Saotome. If she's going to dive into all your mess, then I'm going in after her. You're just going to have to deal. Besides, as it turns out, I'm part phoenix. I can move fire around if it's already there and some…other stuff. I figure I can at least provide a distraction."

"Wait, you're part phoenix? Since when? Your one of the most normal people I know. Sharp. A good asset, but a little shy and…normal."

"Okay, so we're going to play a game of 'let's fuck with Hoko's head', huh? Fine. I've never even talked you, and yet, for some reason you're acting like you know me? How about this? How about we go with you don't know me as well as you think you do? I was killed and then I was reborn. And while I was dead I did some thinking and decided that I died a loser's death. And when I came back to life, I decided I would not ever let that happen again. I'm not going to let other people take away the things that are important to me. Nabiki is important to me. Deal with it." Hoko hung up.

Listening to the dial tone, Ranko blinked.

_She was your friend and now she hangs up on you like you're nothing._

Ranko shook her head. No. She wasn't her friend she was Nabiki's friend, and she didn't abandon anybody she was just upset.

_They all abandon you sooner or later. Kasumi is only being nice to you out of fear. You can see it in her eyes. Your mother sleeping in the other room? She will kill you as soon as she finds out you used to be her son. _

"I still am her son!" But the words sounded hollow in her girl's voice.

_I don't think so. Face it, Ranko. You're a girl. That's what your father called you isn't it? That's what Akane called you. That's what you are. A weak little girl. The moment your mother finds out who you used to be she'll kill you. She'll kill you because you killed her son._

Ranko felt something ice cold race up her spine. She gripped the kitchen counter tightly enough to cause it to crack. The telephone receive crumpled in her other hand.

Ranko felt Kasumi's gentle hand on her shoulder. "Little sister, what's wrong?"

_Little sister, she calls you. She used to respect you. She used to think you were powerful. Now you can't even take care of Kodachi. Kodachi shouldn't even be a threat, but you're cowering behind Kasumi's skirts. _

"It's just temporary. Nabiki has my bravery. I just got to get it back from her."

_What makes you think she'll give it back? It suits her far better than it ever suited you. You've felt it yourself how well she takes to it. She should have been born a man. Just like you should have been a girl from the start. Soon Nabiki will realize you're just dead weight and cut you off. You can feel the bond between you weakening even now, can't you? Soon you'll be all mine, my little death doll._

"Ranko-chan, who are you talking to? Look at me, Ranko."

Ranko was so tense it took great effort simply to turn her head to Kasumi, "_Help me,"_ she croaked, eyes wide and brimming with tears.

_HA! Asking Kasumi for help? Kasumi? You've got to be kidding. Besides I'm only telling you what you already know is true. _

"It's NOT true! It's a lie! You're only taking the bad side of things. You're distorting everything making it all look bad!"

_Am I, Ranko? Do you really think anybody in this town loves you? You just like the pain, girl. You get off on misery. It's what you grew up on. Your father beat you, all your so called friends hit you. If someone beats you up you chase after them just so they can beat you up again. It's your version of affection. It's the only thing you know. I can give you pain, Ranko. I can give you sweet exquisite pain. _

Ranko felt something in her hand.

Kasumi had put a large knife into it.

The first thought Ranko had was that she could stab herself with it. But the voice was gone now. She blinked.

"Would you help me with the tomatoes? I'm making a salad for tomorrow." Kasumi's throat was very exposed. All Ranko would have to do is sweep her hand just so and…

She shook her head.

Kasumi trusted her.

She trusted her so much she was willing to risk her life.

Ranko nodded, lowering the knife. The emotions that had seized her earlier were still roiling within her, but they had settled into a low boil. Kasumi handed her a tomato, and Ranko slowly took it to the cutting board and manipulated the knife through the meat of the red fruit. Gradually, she was able to breathe normally, growing more calm. She loved cooking. It was the first thing she knew she could do outside the art. She didn't have to hurt anybody to do it either. It didn't have to cause any pain at all.

She had to get to Nabiki. It wasn't just that she didn't have her manliness. Nabiki was her thyself known. The more she was away from her the more she became unsure of herself. Nabiki was probably feeling the same thing. Airanman had infected her with his liquid iron. Where her soul of ice used to be, now there was his evil snickering face. It wasn't safe for Kasumi to be around her either. Maybe it was dangerous for her to go, but it was still safer to reach Nabiki and get some measure of self control back rather than stay here and slowly unravel.

After she was done with the tomatoes, Ranko carefully set the knife down on the counter. Taking measured breaths she turned to Kasumi. "I appreciate what you're trying to do for me, Kasumi, but I don't think I can stay here. I'm going to try to fight this thing inside me, but... I can't do it here. My mate is... Nabiki's in trouble. I should probably stay here, wait it out, but" Ranko shrugged and favored Kasumi with a shadow of her usual smirk. "I just gotta go do the dumb thing."

Kasumi nodded tiredly. In that moment she had such a serious expression on her face that Ranko would have asked her what was wrong, except of course she already had a pretty good idea of what was wrong. Ever since her mind meld with Nabiki she had known the truth about Kasumi's apparent flightiness, but even though it saddened her a little to see Kasumi so affected, it also reassured her a little. Kasumi was human. Her aloofness, her indirect solutions to serious problems, it wasn't an act so much as a defense mechanism. But there had been a little too much to defend against recently and it showed now on the eldest Tendo sister's face. Nevertheless, Kasumi's warm smile returned as she said "Well, if you're going out anyway... Maybe you could bring back a carton of eggs? I think we might be low."

Ranko smiled back. "I'll do that, oneesama. I'll be back. I...I promise" Ranko turned quickly away and headed out of the door as the tears started gushing down her face.

_You won't be back you little cunt. You're running away._

Ranko gritted her teeth and waited until she was outside and some distance away from the house before she responded out loud. "You shut up, you got that? I don't know what your game is. Maybe you want something from me, maybe you're really some dark part of me that was always there. Don't know. Don't care. I AM coming back. I am NOT running away. I'm going to save my fiancé and return to this location WITH a carton of farm fresh eggs and a pocket full of change and that's that. Maybe Nabiki will leave me. Maybe I do like pain a little. Maybe I'm really a girl. Screw it. I don't care any more. Even if all the terrible things you say are true, I'm still going to keep on trying to do the right thing. I'm still going to protect the people I care about. That's one part of myself that I'm sure about. And if I can't hold on to that, then all the pain or pleasure or whatever other emotion you or anything else might throw at me won't matter. I'll be gone already."

Ranko stood outside the gateway to the Tendo residence just out side the circle of light from a streetlamp. For a long moment there was silence both in Ranko's brain and outside it. Ranko used a sleeve to wipe at the tears that were still leaking out of her eyes. She was just about to start running toward the Kuno estate when she felt something cold and sharp move inside her.

_You aren't going to protect SHIT, little girl._ The voice seemed to carom off the inside of Ranko's skull with the timbre of a concentrated scream, of nails on chalkboard amplified to glass shattering levels. _I am not going to let you._

Ranko first felt something inside her make a sickening crunching noise. Then she felt herself falling. She waved her arms around to catch herself and her palms slammed against the concrete, small stones scraping across the skin. An agonizing twang of pain erupted from her back and she tensed all her muscles against it, willing it away.

It was only when she realized she could not feel her legs that she let out the scream that had been building up within her.

~~~~~end of Chapter 11~~~~~~

Authors Notes: I'm going to put a forum thread for this chapter I think, but a few things one should know. I have the next chapter drafted and I'm doing edits on it. It should be ready by next week if not sooner which is why I figured I'd be able to end on a cliffhanger. This has not yet been seen by other eyes. If you see anything wrong with it, please let me know.

It shall continue to be weird.


	12. Pain and Death

WARNING: This chapter gets pretty dark. I'm pretty sure, though, that this chapter is about as dark as it's going to get. Things get a _teensy bit _ brighter at the end. If you get upset at something that happens, please skim, yes skim if you must, to the end and read the last section before making any judgments.

Thyself Known

A Ranma ½ fanfic by Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: Linda sat holding little Rupert up by his hands. "Come, on, you can do it!"She encouraged. Tentatively she let go. Rupert was standing! He even took a few staggering steps before collapsing on the floor. "You did it Rupee! You did it!" Linda cried and held Rupert in her arms. Rupert gurgled happily and said "Yes mother, but I'm afraid characters and situations from Ranma ½ are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and their other owners and not the author of this fanfic."

~~~~Chapter12: Pain and Death~~~~~

_As the pain sweeps through_

_Makes no sense for you_

_Every thrill has gone_

_Wasn't too much fun at all_

_But I'll be there for you_

_As the world falls down_

David Bowie/Trevor Jones – As the World Falls Down

~~~~~red haze~~~~~

Ranko dragged herself along the concrete. There was still pain, but even as bad as it was, Ranko was used to pain. She had screamed. Her throat was raw from it. But she was done with that. The worst that could happen, or close to it, had already happened. Ranko still felt she was a coward compared to what she had been, but now there was nothing to fear. Her Art was gone, her legs nothing but two pieces of dead meat. But that also meant there was no point in being Ranko. Let her mother come at her with that sword. Let anything come. She was Saotome Ranma. She pulled herself forward again. She would make good on her promise to Kasumi.

_~You don't get it, do you?~_ The evil old man's voice screeched from inside. ~_I can take your arms too. Would you like me to take your arms?~ _Glowing liquid metal fell from above Ranma's head and spattered on her forearms it wasn't hot, but cold. Freezing cold.

Ranma stopped, staring at the black metal curling around her arm, down to her wrists. Her voice came out in a seething growl. "What do you want from me?"

The evil thing inside her laughed. ~_Do you want me to show you? Do you?~_

~~~~~panic~~~~~

It wasn't something Kodachi had planned on. The kitsune's father had surprised her, walking out of the bar. He came out just as she was jumping past. Kabuto had been beside her carrying the kitsune's limp form like a ridiculously oversized knapsack, the false girl's body easily twice as large as Kabuto's. Tendo was angry at her, almost vicious, like no older person had ever really been to her before. He wanted to know what she was doing with his daughter, demanded that she put her down.

She started to explain that it wasn't his daughter, that Nabiki was really a kitsune who was trying to fool him, but she couldn't figure out how to say it. Tendo-san was nothing but a peasant…but he was older. More than that. There was something in his eyes that Kodachi had longed for. Something that she had always wanted, but despite torturing and seducing scores of men young and old, she could not find. Something she saw in a brief flash in Ranma-sama's eyes that night when he had caught her from falling. She had just about given up on ever seeing it again, but here it was, being wasted on a fake person. A spiritual con artist.

It just wasn't fair. Kodachi had noble blood, possessed skill and cunning beyond any other in the region, save perhaps Ranma-sama, and some subhuman deviant managed to steal somebody's love, when Kodachi had trouble even finding it. For a moment the pain sliced through Kodachi's perspective, and it seemed in that brief time like she wasn't powerful or noble. It didn't seem like she was anything more than a confused, lonely girl, running through the streets in a leotard. Running with her eyes closed, as fast as she could.

The feeling passed, though, and the emptiness of it was soon filled with acid rage. She practically tore a battle ribbon out of her hair and snapped it around the man's body in a python grip. The man was taken by surprise, but he pulled out a knife, from somewhere and tried to cut through the ribbon, not knowing that the ribbon was special, woven with strands of steel and that the knife wouldn't do anything but give Kodachi time to squeeze the air out of his body. Kodachi tightened the ribbon with a pull, and then tightened it again, each act riding on an acid wave of hate. Until the man collapsed, his body going slack, held only by the coils of ribbon. The knife he was holding did not clatter to the ground. It simply disappeared. Kodachi saw this but didn't really notice it. For her it only registered as a vague feeling of uneasiness, of something not quite right with things.

A feeling she banished with a throaty laugh, a flourish of her ribbon and a spray of black rose petals, purely for her own benefit as there were no onlookers as far as Kodachi could see. Slightly irritated at this realization, she called Orochimaru and Kabuto, and they appeared in a rush of wind. The cowards must have run off when the Tendo patriarch came out. She would have to punish them later. For now she just ordered them to carry Tendo-san's and the kitsune's body as she set forth once again for her mansion.

~~~~~demon past~~~~~

Ranma is standing in a subway, wedged within a throng of people. She knows this is a dream, because the people don't have faces and the ceiling flows with a river of blood. Ranma is female in the dream. She is wearing a girl's high school uniform, but not the Furinkan uniform. This is some other area of Tokyo. Some earlier time.

Someone steps hard on Ranma's foot, crushing the bone. Ranma cries out. The person that steps on her is the wretched old man from the prison. The Iron man. Even with the terrible pain of the real world to compare to, it doesn't change the fact that her dream foot hurts terribly. Ranma wants to cry, to give in. But the old man is grinning widely, looking at her expectantly. She may be a girl in this dream the demon concocted, but Ranma will not allow the evil wretch see her weakness. She can hold it in. She can turn it into anger, into sharpness. "What is this?" She darts her eyes left and right to indicate her surroundings.

"This is where I met you first, my little death doll. You were standing on the edge, over there."

The no-faced people part like a curtain, revealing a girl, dressed the same way Ranma is, her hair in a long, black ponytail, leaning forward on the edge of the concrete. Ranma knows what she is doing. She is looking for the light of a train. She is waiting for the right moment to jump.

From the side, a man approaches. A middle-aged man, wearing a thick, buttoned shirt with the sleeves rolled up. There are odd stains in the shirt. They look odd because they are not stains, but burns. This is the iron man. The man speaks. "Don't do it," he says, his voice crackly like paper, not strident like it is now.

"Why not?" the girl asks, "All the world can offer me is pain."

"I can give you more pain. If you like."

The girl turns around fully now. Her eyes are suddenly flames. Actual flames, making her face look like the front of a burning building.

"Sit with me on the next train. I'll tell you about my foundry."

Ranma tries to grab the girl, to shake her, but her hands don't just pass through the girl's body, they stick there, as if she were made of tar. "Don't do it! He's a creep, come on!" But the girl nods. And Ranma feels herself pulled into the girl's body. She struggles against it, but she can find no purchase on the ground. Her feet slide into the girl's feet, merging. In moments Ranma's legs are the girls legs, her waist is merged, her shoulders. Only Ranma's head remains her own and even as she strains her neck attempting to escape, the girl moves her legs and Ranma moves with her. "Stop it! He's not-" but Ranma's mouth is soon covered by the tar of the girl's head.

~~~~~cedar~~~~~

Hoko was looking through her dresses and mousy outfits for something remotely kick ass to save Nabiki in, when her mother entered her room and closed the door. Somehow Hoko could tell just by the sound that Harumi was about to give her a Talk. She closed her eyes and turned around.

When she opened them she saw her mother as expected, looking uncomfortable. Harumi walked to Hoko's bed and sat on the corner. She held her hands clasped on her lap and she was looking at them.

"What is it, Mom?"

Harumi looked up and then gestured for Hoko to sit next to her.

Hoko sighed and did as her mother asked. She was pretty sure she wasn't going to like this.

"Honey, I know your friend is in trouble and you want to help. Just for the record, if it were up to me, you wouldn't be leaving tonight, but things are different now, whether I want them to be or not, and I just have to live with that."

"Okay?" Hoko urged her mother to continue.

"When you came in earlier, you said a lot of things to me, that didn't all register at the time. You explained a lot of it to your father and me, but…There's one thing I heard you say earlier, that you didn't talk to us about."

"Yeah?"

"Honey, you said you were r-"

"Oh!" Hoko interrupted. She gave a nervous laugh, "No, that was…It wasn't really…I mean." Hoko looked down. "I'm a little conflicted about it. I'm not sure if what happened to me counts, as, you know, r-rape, but whenever I say to myself, that 'no, it wasn't' that feels wrong too."

"Could you tell me what happened? Only if you're okay to talk about it."

Hoko paused. She felt the acid hate from what happened to her well up inside her again. A terrible hate, just a step left of despair. She took a breath and let it out. "You know most of it. It's just…you don't know what it was like. He used my body, said things and…did things I would never do."

Harumi tried to put her arm around Hoko, but Hoko pushed it off and sat farther away. "You don't understand. While he was using my body, he…um…masturbated. I know we talked about that, and it's not like I haven't ah, you know. But when Copycat did it, it was different. He didn't care about hurting my body, he wanted to feel pain, to feel like he was still a person somehow. He was very rough. More into… penetration. And I was there, stuck in my own head, seeing everything, feeling everything. I…I couldn't even scream."

"I'm so sorry. All that was going on under my own roof and I didn't even know!"

"How could you, Mom? Even if you had caught me, caught Copycat, you would have thought it was just me acting out or something. You would have thought it was a phase just like you think what I'm doing now is a phase. Even Doctor Tofu couldn't tell what was going on, because the piece of my soul that copycat stole made my aura look the same."

"You're right. You're right." Harumi sighed. "I guess I just thought you were safe, that nothing like this would happen to you. I don't know what to do now. Part of me wants to lock you in your room and never let you out, never let the world in, but I know that's wrong. Selfish."

Hoko scooted back closer to her mother, and leaned against her. "You're a good mom, Mom."

Harumi leaned her head against Hoko's. "How are you holding up? Do you want to talk to someone about it?"

Hoko stiffened. By "someone" Hoko knew her mother meant a psychologist or some other expert. "No. I don't. I keep on thinking of girls who actually got raped and what they would think of my story. I don't know if it's really the same thing. Besides that, I don't like the idea anyway. I mean I'd much rather not have been raped if I can help it. If I'm raped it means I have to be this victim, this broken person." Hoko took a shuddering breath, a lump forming in her throat, "But I am a victim, I am a broken person. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be trying so hard not to be."

Hoko felt her mother give her an assuring squeeze. "You're not a victim. That's not who you are. We are not defined by what happens to us, but what we do about it afterward. I look at you, and I see what my daughter has become, a brave young woman who is willing to fight for her friends."

"But what if that's all a lie!"

Harumi stood up and held Hoko's shoulders with her hands. "If it's a lie, then stay here in your room and let someone else take care of Nabiki. Because I'll love you no matter what."

Hoko closed her eyes as her mother kissed her on the forehead and released her. "Goodnight, sweetie. And be careful okay?"

"Okay, Mom, I will."

It was only after her mother left that Hoko realized that both she and her mother already knew what she was going to do. Otherwise why say "be careful?"

Hoko had responded without even thinking. She hadn't even considered staying home. She was going by herself into the city an hour before midnight, hoping to help save her friend from a crazed gymnast. That was something that the old Hoko, normal Hoko, would only have dreamed of doing, but that was who she was now. And somehow it was that realization, rather than all the stuff she had told her mom on her bed, that started her crying.

She gave a little scream and pounded the bed with her fist. This was so annoying! She didn't have time for this shit.

Giving up on finding something else to wear, Hoko found her way through blurry tear-vision down the stairs and into the garage where her motorcycle waited. She breathed deeply a few times and wiped the tears from her face. It took another minute sitting on the bike, but the crying jag passed like a summer shower, and Hoko felt better. She opened the garage door, tied her hair back with a scrunchi, put her helmet on her head, keyed the ignition, and revved the engine once or twice. Then, remembering what she had learned tonight, she turned the engine off and on again, only this time without the key.

Then Hoko zoomed out of her driveway, smiling like a lunatic.

~~~~~derision~~~~~

Tatewaki Kuno observed his sister make a few paltry practice feints with one of the family katana. In truth, he was ambivalent, for was it not good that his sister realize the power of kendo? But was it not a disgrace for her to stagger about so oafishly with a Kuno family blade? And yet was it not also hilarious to watch? "My sister, perchance you'll allow me to assist you in this, your latest endeavor?"

"I'll have you know, dear brother, that I can wield a blade as artfully as you can. Certainly better than you can manipulate any of my instruments." She stood, back straight holding the blade much as she would a length of ribbon, and indeed it seemed an artful pose, although entirely unfit for actual combat.

"I'm afraid you are mistaken, sister. The blade is like unto a mischievous mistress, easy to embrace, but difficult to master. Your flailings are the movements of a petulant child. I fail to see how you hope to impress your hostages with such a display."

Tendo Nabiki, and her father, Tendo Soun, were both bound to concrete pillars in the main atrium of the Kuno mansion. Tatewaki wasn't overly worried. Sasuke had reported only yesterday that he had finished his monthly chore of filing down Mr. Turtle's teeth. Kodachi fancied herself a murderess, and if it is indeed intention and not action which defines a soul, then she was one in fact, but with care, Tatewaki was able to indulge his sister's fantasies without them ever reaching the level of actual homicide.

"I do not seek to impress these miscreants, brother. I seek truth and justice. This one, Tendo Nabiki, is not a mere money grubbing harridan. She is a wicked kitsune, and I will reveal her as such to her 'father' before I behead her with this blade."

"What evidence do you have of this?"

"Direct evidence. I've seen her cloaked in illusion and I saw a malevolent spirit rise from where she rested."

"Hmm…A kitsune, you say." Tatewaki rubbed his chin in thought. There was some merit to the idea. Nabiki was crafty, was she not? And mischievous. What if it were she, and not Saotome who was the magician that continually thwarted him?

Kodachi caught the gesture. "Ohohoho! Yes, she's the one who caused you so much pain! There is no redhead, dear brother. That girl is just a sick illusion made up by this wench."

Tatewaki hadn't thought it through that far, "What? No! You are mistaken, sister," Tatewaki said, growing more convinced of the merit of his words as he said them, "It is the _male_ Ranma that is the illusion, as you would know if you visited Furinkan with greater frequency. Oft I find my beloved in her true form and only rarely anymore is she clothed in the appearance of masculinity."

"Now, brother, I know your grip on reality is tenuous at best, but you have seen the same vision I have. Why would a kitsune bother ravishing someone of the same sex?"

"The mischief of kitsune knows no bounds, sister. And it was no vision you and I saw, my deranged sibling, but a news broadcast. I suppose next you will assure me that those colored squares occluding the view of the act were evidence of Nabiki's power?"

"Oh brother! Tell me you did not just accuse ME of being an anachronism? Has no one shown you the news broadcast declaring bushido dead? "

Even Kodachi seemed to realize she had gone too far. Her eyes widened a little and she backed up a half step before she righted herself.

Tatewaki rushed toward Kodachi and past her to stand between her and the bound Nabiki. "Bushido is not dead. Not so long as those such as I continue to practice its teachings. And I have made a decision. I will not allow you to execute the kitsune. If she is clever enough to fashion such illusions as we both have witnessed, then she is clever enough to fashion one around an innocent. Suppose this were not truly Nabiki, but your precious Ranma-sama. What worth would your vengeance be, if it resulted in his death?"

"Ranko!" The name was spoken in a gasp. It was spoken by Tendo Nabiki. Tatewaki turned to look at her. Her eyes were glowing green. Any remaining doubt that Nabiki was a kitsune was erased from his mind. Nabiki struggled briefly against her bonds. Then her eyes flashed to Tatewaki and then to Kodachi. They thinned. "Let me go. I have to go to her."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHO! Just as in legend your eyes have revealed your true nature, kitsune. "

Tatewaki could not help but stare in awe as a pulsating green aura seeped out of Nabiki and formed a long pseudopod that angled toward Kodachi. She waved at it with the sword but instead of dissipating it, the sword seemed to get stuck in the blob of the aura. Kodachi immediately let go, and the sword continued to levitate, bending slowly until the tip was almost touching the hilt. Then the katana was thrown away, clattering somewhere behind Tatewaki.

There were three audible snaps as the bonds about Nabiki's wrists ankles and waist were torn apart. And then, like a balloon popping without sound, the glowing green aura suddenly just wasn't there. Nabiki was free from her bonds. And now, she took a shaking step forward…

~~~~~heat~~~~~

The foundry is not the large factory operation that Ranma expected. The iron man is the owner of a largish estate in the countryside of Japan. In a large blackened patch of earth a cylindrical object roughly the size of a pickle bucket, spews out fire. This is the foundry.

The girl that Ranma can't get away from lies face down in a rough wooden crate. She is naked. She can feel the cold, grainy, hard-packed sand around her body. She breathes heavily through the straw in her mouth. The sand is flush against the lid to the crate. She cannot move enough to get out. She has started to panic, but it is too late.

"I was going to let her out at this point." The Iron Man crows cheerfully, and Ranma can hear his voice as if it is at her ear, even though she can only see and feel what the girl can. "I let the previous ones out. My subjects. I let them out and poured the metal afterwards like a good little boy. But then I got _curious_."

The lid comes up, and the girl feels the air against her flesh. She is glad. She doesn't want to end her life anymore and maybe her statue will be famous some day. She has something to tell her friends besides that Taro is seeing Konojo now and that she was never anything other than a sex doll to the bastard. Then she feels a splash of heat. Then a splash of searing torture. She screams but she can't open her jaw so the sound is muffled. The heat gets worse and worse, she tries to get up, but moving only makes the burning spread and she still doesn't have any leverage.

"The sand's synthetic," the iron man explains. "It's mixed with a resin. It's like concrete. When the metal pours into the mold, the sand allows the gasses to escape without destroying the pattern. Living tissue fucks that up, though. Humans are seventy-five percent water. They boil when the metal touches them. They sizzle like a piece of bacon. It smells a little like bacon too." He seems pleased with this assessment.

The burning spreads and seems to go deeper, into shoulders, stomach, lungs. The girl cannot breathe. She convulses. She coughs out blood, but it has nowhere to go, so it stays in her mouth. It is the only thing other than pain she experiences before she dies.

And yet Ranma remains. Ranma remains to feel the metal continue to pool around the girl's neck, her legs. She can feel it crest over the back of her head, she can feel it boil the back of her brain.

"This is when I realized my true calling!" The Iron man screams. "After sixty-six years I finally understood! "

Ranma can feel the skin and muscle begin to dry out and char, can feel flesh pulling away from bone even as the front of her body, farthest away from the metal, starts sizzling.

"This is when I became immortal!"

~~~~~tired~~~~~

"Look, if it were just you, maybe I'd keep out of it. But you're being stupid on an epic scale here, doctor. This is like 'hey I wonder what happens if I press this red button that says ATOMIC BOMB' stupid." Detective Inamura's voice gave Tofu the incongruous impression of a weary buzz saw.

"I'm telling you, Detective, that I am not relaxing, I have done everything that can be done." Tofu turned his head to yawn away from the phone's receiver. " I have safety measures in place that will absolutely ensure that Ranma will not hurt himself or anyone around him. "

"He needs to be watched by someone who knows what he's doing and who can do something about it." Inamura managed to give the air of having interrupted Tofu without actually doing it. "That's either you or me, and neither of us are there."

"That's not necessary. It's under control." Kasumi was there too, Tofu didn't add. If Kasumi had to intercede she would be in bed for a month, recovering, if she ever did recover.

"Under control? Let me tell you something about under control. Nineteen seventy-three through eighty-one, a bunch of kids go missing without a trace. People call it a kamikakushi, they're just spirited away by the gods. We say we're pursuing all leads, it's under control.

"Then one of the parents recognizes their daughter in a metal statue on sale at some auction. Turns out the poor thing is dead _inside_ the statue. We go on a manhunt. We find the guy who did it, the 'Iron Man' the press calls him. We go after him, it's under control.

" But no, turns out he's off to Hawaii, and we have to inform the US government that they have a serial killer on their turf. They say they'll take care of it. 'It's under control,' they say.

" A year later Five more girls end up dead over there. All at the same time, and by the time the Americans find out about it, he's back over here. I'm in charge. I lead a team and eventually catch him and kill him. Finally, it's under control.

"But no, it isn't. Because it happens again in Okinawa, nineteen eighty-four. In Shanghai, nineteen eighty six, and in Ann-Arbor, Michigan in the U.S. in nineteen eighty-seven. And those are just the ones we know about. The press had made the Iron man into a minor deity and so he lived on after death. He became a demon. He hit Japan again shortly after the Ann-Arbor murder, and it was only by luck we were able to perform an exorcism before his last vessel was executed, and we threw him in a temporally isolated jail cell. Finally we had the bastard under control.

" Then he managed to wrap part of himself around a seventeen year old's spine and escape an inescapable prison. So excuse me if I'm a little hesitant to believe that you have everything 'under control'."

Tofu sighed. "I'll go back to the Tendo's, okay? That make you happy?"

"Ecstatic. You know I'd go myself, only I have four impending apocalypses to prevent while you only have the one. Why does the boundary between realities have to be a curtain for the gods' sakes? Why can't it be a nice thick brick wall?" Detective Inamura hung up.

Tofu put the receiver back on its cradle and stared for a while at the hole in his bedroom floor that Ranma had made with Tofu's head. He began to have a sneaking suspicion that maybe Detective Inamura was right. Maybe it was stupid for him to go back to his place above the clinic. But there wasn't anywhere to sleep at the Tendo's and he was exhausted. Besides, as long as Nabiki and Ranma stayed close there shouldn't be a problem, and from how they were acting it didn't seem like they'd have any trouble with that.

The phone rang again, startling Tofu. He picked up the receiver.

"Tofu?" Kasumi's melodious voice said.

"Y-yes?" Tofu responded, willing his glasses not to fog up.

"I'm afraid one of Ranma's friends is playing a nasty game with Nabiki-chan, and Ranma-chan is um…she's screaming and writhing on the ground, and I think she might be paralyzed. Do you think you could come over?"

Tofu didn't answer right away. Inamura was right. Tofu hadn't just been stupid, but stupendously, monumentally stupid. _Literally, _Tofu thought_. They should construct monuments to just how mind-numbingly stupid I've been._

"I'll be over as fast as I can, Kasumi," and Tofu hung up, already rushing out of his room.

~~~~~confusion~~~~~

Tatewaki was unsure for a moment how to proceed. He felt he should strike the creature down, but how powerful should he make the blow? Then, Nabiki stumbled and fell to the ground, unconscious.

"What manner of kitsune is this?" Tatewaki had never heard of a kitsune passing out from exhaustion after performing one of its tricks. Maybe this was some sort of test? Something to see how honorable he or his sister could be?

"What does it matter, brother? She should be killed before she awakes again." Kodachi had retrieved a halberd that had been on display on a nearby wall and was now approaching with murderous intent.

Before Kuno could protest, Sasuke fell from the ceiling between him and Kodachi. The little monkey man got up and bowed deeply to both of them, his face contorted in a look of concern, "Mistress and Master Kuno, I have news about the pigtailed girl!"

"We are busy at the moment, worm," Kodachi hit the ninja with the back of her hand. "Why did you escape the dungeon? I'll break you again!" One of Kodachi's flights of fancy again. Kuno shook his head, yesterday she was saying they had three ninja working for them. It had been just Sasuke for years, why she felt the need to concoct two imaginary ninja was beyond him.

Sasuke gave Kuno an anxious glance. Tatewaki stepped forward. "Stay yourself, sister, I would hear this news of my goddess."

"Thank you master!" Sasuke bowed exuberantly to Tatewake several times before continuing. "She seems to be gravely injured. I heard a scream, so I thought I would check it out. She's collapsed in front of the gate of the Tendo residence."

"I must go to her at once!"

Sasuke nodded. "I will leave to get more help in case it's needed." He disappeared in a blur, and Tatewaki rushed to leave.

"Don't be a fool, Brother."

Tatewaki turned around at the sound of his sister's piercing voice. "My love is in trouble. I must save her. I see no foolishness in my acts, only honor."

Kodachi laughed. "You truly are as daft as they say. Have we not determined that there is no such thing as the 'pigtailed girl'? That is merely an illusion concocted by this vile being."

"The illusion, sister, was of the male form, not the female one. To think of the times I mistreated her, thinking her male façade to be the arbiter of my beloved's absences, when in fact it was my goddess I railed against, disguised by magic! "

"Oh to be there with you when you run to your goddess, and find only your hated foe!" Kodachi lifted the halberd, "Let me but dispatch this creature, brother, and I'll accompany you on your delightfully quixotic adventure."

"No!." Tatewaki rushed back to Kodachi, his wooden sword ready to attack. "You will not harm her."

Kodachi slowly lowered her weapon. "Why do you protect this… thing, brother? You have been harmed by it almost as much as I."

"My other goddess is the fair Akane. This is her sister, or at least she has the form of her sister. How could I ever hope to garner fiery Akane's affections if I allowed a member of her family to come to harm?"

"You are insane! This is a vile kitsune, no doubt she created an image of that other harridan to fool you and I as well!"

Tatewaki advanced steadily toward his sister, keeping his sword at the ready. "If it is madness to not wish ill on those I love then indeed I am most insane. But I would far prefer such insanity to living a life void of affection. I will not allow myself to be imprisoned by my actions, to tear apart with an act of violence every thread that ties me to a world outside myself. I am not you, sister." With a sharp swipe of his bokken Tatewaki sliced Kodachi's halberd in two.

This accomplished, Tatewaki set about releasing Soun Tendo. "Awake, elder Tendo," Tatewaki lightly nudged the middle-aged man's shoulder once was freed. The man's breath smelled of sake. "You must attend to your daughter."

Soun's eyes snapped open and he immediately tensed. His gaze darted around the room until it found his daughter. "Nabiki! What have you done to her?" In a blink, the Tendo patriarch was suddenly clothed head to toe in samurai armor. Tatewaki stepped back, startled. Was he a kitsune too?

~~~~~inversion~~~~~

Ranma is in her body again. In the girl version of her body anyway. She is hanging by her leg above a ladle the size of the back of a truck. The ladle is filled with molten Iron, the light from it so bright that it would cause spots to form in her vision were this not some strange dream.

The old man performs a cartwheel around the hanging ladle, a puckish sprite, his solid black eyes reflecting the light of the metal ghoulishly, the wrinkles of his bare skin morphing into the faces of his victims as they cry in torment. "Of all the places I inhabited this was the best." The Iron man declares. "A full factory foundry! Abandoned! Just waiting for me to do my work."

Ranma stopped being impressed after the fifth victim. She lost count after the fifteenth. She is numb now. The heat and the pain of burning have begun to feel like old companions. She waits for them now. She prefers them to the old man's prattle. She has to remind herself to try to move. It has been so long since she could exercise any will at all. But now she is in her own body, well, not her body, but a body she is used to.

"It's not so different, is it, my little death doll?" Iron man spoke with a tone of condescension. "You've been living in a strange girl's body ever since you fell into Jusenkyo. Unable to do anything about it. You've been tossed by the whims of fate, forced to live a lie in order to keep from being executed. Are you really so different from my victims? Forced to live lives they didn't want, unable to break out of the pattern they found themselves in? You think I can't sympathize? I was an old man, forced into retirement, living alone. All I had was my art. But I used my art and turned it into something truly beautiful. Look how it shines!"

"I am not like you. Not one bit."

The Iron man jumps nimbly to the edge of the ladle, the glowing liquid metal sloshes as the ladle swings. When the movement steadies, the Iron man stands and grabs Ranma's pigtail. "Who are you then? Are you a martial artist? A cook? A cat? A human? A boy? A girl? Do you believe in anything? Do you have any kind of code that you've kept with any consistency? I'm offering you an identity. I'm giving you someone to be. Just surrender to me, let me guide you, let me tell you what you desire, and you shall have it."

Ranma frowns. "That's stupid."

It's almost imperceptible, but the brightness from the liquid metal dims. "It's not stupid! You've played by other people's rules your whole lifeI Your father, your teachers, Akane, your mother…"

"Y'know you're right? But I don't see how your rules are any better." Ranma feels something. It's Nabiki. She feels her through their link. Nabiki is doing something with her power. "I ain't gonna join you, so if it's all the same, I got a fiancée to rescue."

The metal dims more. All of the mad joy fades from the iron man's face. "You don't understand your situation, girl. If you don't join me, I kill you, that's the way it works. I'm really trying to be nice here."

Ranma finds she can move a little now. She moves her arms so that they cross at her chest. "You're pathetic! You can't kill me. You need me. If you were gonna kill me you'd've done it already. I've been a bit confused about things recently. I've been a bit upset. And that's probably how you got to me before. But I don't know. Maybe getting killed a bunch of times cleared my head or something, cause what you're sellin' just seems more n' more like a load of crap. Why should I have to choose between bein' a cook or a martial artist. Or between bein' girl or a boy for that matter? I like bein' both. So screw it, that's what I am. I'm both. Saotome school of Anything Goes living."

"But you can't be both," the iron man snickers. "You know what your fiancée did to you. She pushed away everything about you that was male. You're nothing but a girl now."

The metal brightens for a moment, but then it dims again. "Physically? Sure. But, way I figure, ki regenerates. So that part that I gave to Nabiki? It grew back. You probably helped with that. Cause all this time getting killed over and over? All I've wanted to do is kick your ass." With that, Ranma releases her ki claws and bends to where her ankle is tied to the chain and cuts, flipping to land in a three point crouch on the now perfectly solid and cool metal in the ladle.

"Good luck with that," the iron man says. And the dream fades into reality.

~~~~~***~~~~~

Ranma found herself still on the pavement, still unable to move her legs, her wrists heavy with the iron spattered on them from before. She felt Nabiki through their bond, passed out again. Taking a breath she pulled herself forward with her arms. The pain was still there, but it wasn't anything new. She was used to it now. She heard a snickering as she moved herself forward again. The black metal on her wrists, began to glow red, then orange, then white. It seared her flesh and tightened, crushing bone. This wasn't right. She defeated the bastard hadn't she? How was he still able to do this to her? She tried to continue moving forward centimeter by torturous centimeter, but when she saw her hands fall off like dead leaves from a sickly tree, she stopped. This wasn't some dream. This was her body. Her only body now that her male side was physically gone. She couldn't walk anymore, and now she couldn't even make a fist. How could she hope to save Nabiki?

The cackling rose in volume and pitch. The iron man couldn't kill her, that was true. But he didn't need to. Ranma had no idea how to attack him now, but she had to find a way.

~~~~~horror~~~~~

Kodachi laughed "Such a clever ruse! Switching bodies like that! It shan't work, though, vile one!" She pulled out a ribbon and spun it in the air a few times before launching it toward Tendo Soun. It snaked through all of his armor and wrapped around his neck. Kodachi pulled, and Tendo choked stumbling forward and falling to the floor. "Where is your trickery now, kitsune?" Three drops of blood fell to the floor from the man's neck.

Tatewaki paused for a moment to assess the situation. Should he save Tendo-san? There was a chance after all that the kitsune had changed bodies, wasn't there? He hadn't heard of anything like that, but then perhaps there were powers not covered in legend. Tatewaki shook his head free of his doubts and ran to sever his sister's ribbon.

But by the time he was in place a green glow erupted from the floor. Nabiki, or whatever she was, grabbed Kodachi's ankle. The green amoeba like aura moved from Nabiki's arm up Kodachi's leg with alarming speed.

Tatewaki blinked, panic rising within him. He quickly cut Kodachi's ribbon with the air from his bokken. "Unhand my sister, kitsune. She has released your ersatz father."

Instead the green aura wrapped around Kodachi's arms. Moving them against her will, the aura caused Kodachi to raise the sharpened edge of the ribbon to her own neck.

"Stop this now, Tendo Nabiki!" Tatewaki yelled. "You may not be human, but you are not a killer!"

Nabiki climbed up into a crouch, green aura surrounding her and Kodachi. She grinned, not her usual flirtatious, yet calculating smile, but an evil grin that didn't seem to belong to her. Not to his classmate. Not to his friend. "People change, Kuno-chan." And the green aura made his sister wrap the ribbon around her own neck in a quick motion. A spurt of blood passed through the fabric.

Kuno sent a swath of sharp air at the aura with a swing of his sword, but it only rippled. Was this a hallucination, or was this real? What if this was all in his head and he was at this very moment swinging at shadows? What if he was hurting people who didn't deserve it? But it all seemed too real. "Forgive me, Akane-sama." He swung his bokuto straight at Nabiki now. The aura caught the blade and slowed its path, but it still made a sizable gash in her neck. Nabiki's aura winked out and she fell to the floor again, a pool of red growing around her.

Kodachi fell to her knees gripping her neck.

"Dachi?" Kuno ran to his sister, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "Dachi, is it bad? Is it deep?"

His sister lifted her hand from her neck a fraction of a centimeter and another spurt of blood passed through her fingers. "Mercutio" she whispered and fell back into Tatewaki's chest.

Tatewaki nodded solemnly. She meant Mercutio's line from Romeo and Juliet, the play they read to each other countless times as children: "'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve." His sister, his constant companion through his childhood, the one he was supposed to protect, was dying.

In front of him, lay the motionless body of Soun Tendo, a pool of dark red evidence that Kodachi had taken no half measures with the older man. Behind him lay Tendo's daughter dead by Tatewaki's own hand. He blinked. There was something moving on Nabiki's ear. A small, dark butterfly or moth. He watched as it fluttered into the air and out of the entrance to the conservatory.

That was odd. What did it signify though? Was Nabiki a kitsune? Tatewaki studied her features. She looked human for the most part. Were her ears a little pointed though? Yes! There was no mistake. They were. How had he missed it before? She had been a kitsune and she had been about to kill his sister. It was a justifiable act. Somehow though, that didn't seem to matter.

He sat motionless, hoping for it all to turn out to be a bad dream, hoping for a strong enough delusion to make the death retreat from his mind, as the seconds slipped by, and his sister grew colder in his arms.

~~~~~PAIN~~~~~

_You really want to save that girl who manipulated you all those times?_ The old man's voice screamed in Ranma's ear as she lay on her stomach. _You're both girls. She can hardly be your "mate" now. _

Ranma was having trouble concentrating. Her throat was sore from screaming. Her eyes were like sand paper. Her back was a throbbing curtain of pain. Her arms felt like they were still burning. Her adrenaline was wearing off fast and she still couldn't think of how to fight something she couldn't see, something that was inside her.

_I could help you, you know. I could make it so you could walk again. So you could fight. _

"No," Ranma whispered hoarsely. But doubts were creeping in. All her grandstanding earlier had gotten her nowhere. Maybe she should just give up? She had tried to do the right thing for all her life, and look where it got her. She was both a boy and a girl? That was ridiculous. Obviously she could only be a girl now. Ranko looked at her ruined hands. She couldn't even cook now. Someone would have to help her eat. She was weak, worthless. Maybe she could have been something once but now... She would only ever be a burden to anybody.

_No one could possibly love you as you are. You think Nabiki wants to wipe your ass every time you shit yourself?_

Ranko let out a low moan. She felt sick. Sick of the pain, sick of caring. Sick of life. There was a sudden emptiness that she didn't want to contemplate, and she could tell it made the iron man excited. But it was too much. She couldn't deal with that now. A moth fluttered away, passing only briefly through Ranko's vision. She knew on some level that it meant something, but she couldn't think of what it was.

Then Ranko saw Kasumi through the red haze of her vision. "Ranko? Tofu's coming. Try to bear it just a little longer."

_Stop trying to fool yourself. Kasumi isn't out here. She's in her safe little kitchen, playing house. She doesn't care about you at all._

There was no way that could be true. But what if it was? Kasumi was nice to everyone. Maybe it was just something she did for everyone.

_That's right. She's just being nice to you because she's scared. You'd like to kill her, wouldn't you?_

"What?" Ranko didn't want to kill Kasumi. She didn't want to kill anybody.

_Get real! She was never on your side. Neither was Nabiki. She destroyed your manhood, and now, well haven't you noticed?_

No.

_Come now, you pitiful whore, It was the closest connection you ever had with anyone. And. Now. It's GONE! _ Ranko's mind filled with the shrieking laughter of the demon inside of her.

That emptiness… Ranko knew what it was. A gaping hole of loneliness where Nabiki used to be. Their connection was severed. Nabiki was either dead or…

_She abandoned you. She abandoned you, just like I said she would. She never loved you. She used you, and now she's thrown you away. You have nobody._

_Nobody but me._

~~~~~throbbing~~~~~

The Kuno mansion was usually pretty impressive from the street. It usually took up several blocks and towered over all the surrounding buildings. It usually boasted a broad array of booby traps and other "security devices" that would test even an expert thief's ability to evade them. Genma was, of course, not just an expert thief, but a master thief. He had thievery down to such an art form he had to bungle things up just to give himself a challenge. But instead of the Kuno mansion Genma was familiar with, all he saw was a largish, but rather run down and dilapidated house, about the size of the Tendo's property, with long, wild grass around it and evidence of negligence and decay everywhere. There were two other houses around the main house and they too had an abandoned, run down appearance.

Genma's hangover was in full swing now. The terrible sinking feeling in his gut complemented his preexisting nausea in an unfortunate way. Genma put a hand on the property wall an leaned forward, vomiting. The stomach acid made tears well up in his eyes. But then that too was oddly appropriate.

The last time Genma remembered the Kuno property ever being less than a palatial estate, was eleven years ago, when Kuno Dokume, Kodachi and Tatewaki's mother, died. Her obituary declared it suicide, and Genma supposed that was accurate enough. It wasn't an accident, and it was by Dokume's own hand. It probably wasn't strictly intentional on Dokume's part, but that was difficult to prove, and complicated, and the job of an obituary is to simplify a life into a paragraph.

Denial. That was Dokume's demon. Born into a rich family of noble lineage, she could never believe that she could lose all her money and standing, and she was so good at convincing herself, she convinced everyone around her too. She even convinced reality itself. But of course if she had money, it only stood to reason that assassins would want to kill her and take that money. Perfectly logical. So logical that she ended up killed by said assassins. It wasn't murder, strictly speaking. Her fingerprints were on the murder weapon. But it wasn't really suicide either. Then again, there wasn't a word for what it was. "Accident" wouldn't cut it. Suicide would do in a pinch.

After she died, for almost a week the Kuno property looked like an abandoned building, fit to be condemned. But then Dokume's demon took up residence in her children and husband, and the place grew even more extravagant than before.

Genma rubbed a mossy stone with his hand. If the Kuno property had reverted, it meant that one of the Kunos had died again. It was probably Kodachi, which meant either Nabiki, Soun or the both of them did something they weren't going to be particularly pleased about.

Genma didn't want to go in.

The roar of something drew Genma's attention. Someone was approaching on a vehicle that looked like a motorcycle, but sounded like an active volcano. The person was followed by a somewhat tamer police motorcycle. They both stopped at the entrance next to Genma.

The one on the monster took off her helmet shaking her hair free. A girl about Ranma's age, she had long black hair in a ponytail with a few thin streaks of an orange-red color. It was a much different shade from Ranma's girl side, more natural, yet there was still something odd about how the color was there even under the blue of the streetlight. "Okay, who moved the Kuno's place?" The girl had a strange, fierce look about her.

The police bike had the number 542. It was officer Kawagami's bike, so when he removed his helmet there weren't any surprises there. "What do you mean?" His mirrored sunglasses made him seem eerily aloof. "This is it, isn't it?"

The girl turned to her companion. "The Kunos own a mansion. I've passed by it a thousand times so I know it's supposed to be here. I even went inside once when I was interviewing Kuno for the paper. The place was unbelievably huge. Not like this."

Genma frowned and pointed his finger at the girl. "You're here because Nabiki got kidnapped right?"

"Yeah. Oops! Sorry." The girl took a few steps toward Genma. " We haven't been formally introduced. I am Tomo Hoko. Go easy on me. I think you've met Hiro-kun, I mean, Kawagami-san."

Genma blinked slowly a few times. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Hoko grimaced. "The real Tomo Hoko's dead. I'm just a clone."

"You're not just a clone, Hoko-cha- I mean, Tomo-san. You're you. You're a person."

Genma sighed. Officer Kawagami was pretty young, it actually didn't seem that bad a match, but the kid could get in trouble if he wasn't more careful.

Hoko shrugged and smiled, though the smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "I suppose I'm seven eighths of a person anyway." She turned to Genma again. "Do you know what happened, Uncle Saotome?"

Genma nodded. He looked up at the roof of the building, or what was left of it anyway. "My guess, is that one of the Kunos died. Probably Kodachi-chan. Poor girl."

"Okay…wow. That's some information I wasn't expecting. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Or what that has to do with the lack of a mansion…Oh well. I'll just figure it out later. We going in?" Hoko bent her head toward the house. Hiro shrugged and they both entered the front yard, walking their motorcycles inside the property wall.

Genma followed them, not having a good enough excuse to stay outside. He didn't want to go in, but then reality never got better by ignoring it. Genma learned that much from Kuno Dokume.

~~~~~thyself known~~~~~

The first tiny butterfly was already perched on Tofu's finger as he stood on the sidewalk, staring as it waved its wings. When the second arrived, it landed next to its mate, their wings touched for the briefest of moments and then both insects disappeared like a popped soap bubble.

The thyself known was a magical artifact, a thing connected inextricably with the world of the numinous. An object possessing a sort of intelligence of its own. Sometimes such things had a way of reminding their users of their place in the world, of prophecies and destinies as well as of the things that could not be known. Whether they did this out of compassion or out of a cruel sense of humor, Tofu wasn't sure, but he got the message.

He and Kasumi would become one. It was something unavoidable. Not at all like the vague cloud that surrounded Ranma. This would happen as surely as the sun would rise tomorrow. The thyself known didn't have to make contact with Tofu at all. It could have simply winked back into its nullspace and waited for its next summons. But instead it delivered this message to Tofu.

Two messages. Because if the two halves of thyself known weren't with Ranma and Nabiki, it meant that Ranma or Nabiki, or gods forbid it, both of them, were dead.

This was bad.

Tofu started running again, faster now toward the Tendo residence. He ran for two blocks, then slowed when he saw Ranma writhing in agony, obviously paralyzed. The concrete around her was mere rubble, her clothes were in tatters, and something black and solid looking was growing out of her back and into the ground. A strong warm wind blew through Tofu's gi and then an equally strong cold one. The ki in the cold wind tasted, for lack of a better term, like Ranma's soul of ice, but the hot wind held a far more sinister energy. And each time the hot wind came back it was stronger and hotter. Kasumi and Nodoka were watching with concern from what they must have believed was a safe distance back.

There was no safe distance.

This was real bad.

Tofu reviewed his options. He could probably kill Ranma. Really that was probably the safest bet. The only way to ensure the redhead didn't go on a rampage and kill everybody. But while that made sense logically, no amount of reasoning could convince Tofu that was a real option. Until Ranma was lost irrevocably, he would not use the artifact. Really the best weapon was psychology, but that was not his field. If he could some how restrain Ranma, so that Kasumi, could talk with her safely… But it had been hard enough to restrain Ranma last time, and based off the energy she was giving off, her strength had gone up a hundredfold. Moreover the iron demon was an unknown quantity. He needed more people. He needed more information.

Bracing himself, Tofu ran into the winds again, angling toward Kasumi. The air was rotating around Ranma, Tofu realized, and he altered his trajectory to take advantage of the wall of the Tendo residence, which blocked the current somewhat. Even with the wall helping, eddy currents made it hard to walk as he got closer. Finally he got through the entrance and to Kasumi, where the wind was less intense.

"You and Mrs. Saotome need to get inside!" Tofu yelled over the rush of the wind.

Kasumi nodded. With a tilt of her head she invited Tofu into the house. It was so elegant a gesture, so poised, feminine and at the same time belying the hidden strength he knew was inside her, that Tofu nearly lost it. She was so perfect! But he couldn't let himself lose focus now. He gave Ranma another glance. It felt wrong to go inside while she was still out there suffering, but there was nothing he could without more resources. He followed Kasumi into the house.

"I called you, the Nekohanten, and Akane. Akane's much too far away to make it here in time, that's probably for the best. I only wish Grandfather Happosai were still here."

~~~~~silky darlings~~~~~~

Happosai wondered why he hadn't done this before. It was so easy to sneak into the cargo hold of an airplane it was ridiculous. Just a short hop at the right moment when no one was looking and he could go anywhere in the world. Not only that, but he would travel alongside a veritable cornucopia of womanly undergarments! It was heaven.

Gathering a good size collection of the lacy gems he had found during the long international flight, Happosai prepared to make his exit. He was just about to make a real flashy show of things by blasting out of the hold with a well placed flick of his pipe when one of the airport personnel was kind enough to save him the trouble, opening the latch and letting in the air of San Francisco. Six hours ahead and one day back, it was five thirty in the morning, yesterday.

The airport worker was a young, lanky looking fellow with a moustache who seemed to be just recovering from a chronic acne problem. "Ekusukyuzu mii, boi," He greeted the young man, "Kan yuu teru mii anisingu abauto sekusuraru haraasumento?"

The kid said something fast in English. It took Happosai a little bit to parse it. He sounded out the expression. "Uatto ta heru…" He nodded. The kid had said "What the hell?" It was a little awkward, but then English was a hackneyed, made-up language so it was to be expected that there'd be difficulties. Happosai decided trying to talk any further with the kid would be a waste of time. "Toodles," Happosai said in Japanese and bounded out of the cargo hold carrying a bulging bag of panties and bras on his back like a demented midget beardless Santa…on uppers.

"Hey!" The kid yelled, "You can't do that!"

Happosai smiled. "Just watch, me, sonny boy!" Of course the kid wouldn't understand him, but screw 'im. He probably didn't understand most things anyway.

He certainly didn't understand that the world was about to end.

"Whatta haul! Whatta haul!" Happosai yelled gleefully as he bounded rapidly into the city. He would make his mark here. He would be known as the greatest sexual harasser of all time, men around the world would bow to statues in his likeness. Women would buffet him with their perky sex pillows and then send him flying in a perfect arc after a blow of exquisite feminine rage. What better way to ride out the apocalypse?

~~~~~chaos~~~~~

Ranma Ranko Nabiki Ryoga Akane Kasumi Ukyo strained against the mounting insanity. He she felt the terrible cold of Ranma Ranko Nabiki's soul of ice, the blind rage of Ryoga Akane, and the more sinister edge of the iron man's shadow. In some ways this was an improvement. Ranma Ranko Nabiki could perceive the demon now, and if he she could perceive it then maybe Ranma Ryoga Akane Ukyo could attack it. But Ranko Akane Kasumi was too distraught over the loss of the real Nabiki, and while Ranma Nabiki Ukyo was still ready to fight, Ryoga Ranko had doubts. What if what the iron man said was true? What if the real Nabiki had abandoned him her? Even Nabiki wasn't entirely sure. She wondered if maybe she was too much like the old Nabiki and the real Nabiki was now someone different, if she wasn't dead, but Ranma Ranko Nabiki Ryoga Akane Kasumi Ukyo could not accept that.

The iron man laughed again, and there was a timbre to it, that hadn't been perceptible before. A feminine lilt, an air of superiority. Another laugh, this one only from Kodachi. Then another laugh, this one from Ranma after he had asked Ukyo if she loved him. "I still got it." Iron Kodachi Ranma started jeering, "What's the matter? Too much of a girl peasant pig to attack me?" Another voice added to this cadre. "You're weak. To think that my own son could be defeated by such a slime of a man!" Genma Iron Kodachi Ranma raised his her voice "You are not a man." Kuno's voice added to the mix, "You are no man. You are a foul sorcerer trapping girls with your magic. They see themselves in you, but you never let them see who you are. Because you are nothing. You are an onion, nothing underneath all your layers, all your stolen personality traits, but an empty space where your heart should be."

The body's eyes opened. They had been clenched tightly against the turmoil. The iron-tipped stumps, where the body's hands once were, glowed red, than white. They lengthened, turning into, not hands but talons. White hot iron shot out of the body's waist, and curved down, forming Arachnid legs that raised the torso of the body up, the human legs dangling uselessly in the air.

"No!" cried Ranma Ranko Nabiki Ryoga Akane Kasumi Ukyo, "I'll never join you. I denounce you. You are not a part of me!"

But Iron Kodachi Ranma Genma Kuno chuckled. "You don't know you as well as you think you do."

~~~~~chill~~~~~

Hiro felt it as soon as he entered the large hallway. The bright crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, the white marble columns, the verdant vegetation, the gurgling fountain. None of it could fit in the house he, Hoko and Genma had entered. The room was as large as a small park. Everything was perfectly visible too, as if it were daytime, but there was a palpable darkness underneath. And that chill. He had felt it before. Someone, perhaps several people, had died.

A boy in a blue hakama was cradling a girl in his arms. The girl wore a green leotard. She and the boy were covered in blood.

Saotome started running toward the scene as soon as he entered the atrium. He knelt over the largest of the two other bodies. He looked up. "Call an ambulance!" he shouted. "There might still be time!"

"Right!" Hoko chirped from behind Hiro. "I think I remember where the phone is." He didn't watch her leave. Hiro just met Genma's gaze. There wasn't time. He knew that for a fact.

~_I can't be dead! I have to get to Ranko, she's in trouble!~_ The shadowy form of Tendo Nabiki stood over her own body.

_~Nabiki! I couldn't save you. Please don't die!~ _Soun Tendo cried.

Hiro had, if he was honest with himself, seen ghosts before. But never of people he knew. He wanted to run away, for this not to be his problem, but he knew these people. Or at least one of them. "Tendo-chan?"

Nabiki's ghostly head turned. _~542? 542! Help me! I can't be dead. I have to save Ranko, she's in trouble!~_

Genma didn't seem to hear Nabiki at all. "She looks bad. All of them look bad, though."

"I'm sorry," the teenaged boy in the hakama, Tatewaki Kuno, said.

Where was the third ghost? Three deaths, there should be three ghosts. Maybe the black haired girl was still alive? But when Hiro walked closer and lowered his sunglasses, he could see no spark within her. He raised his sunglasses quickly, lest the waiting throng of the dead notice he was vulnerable.

"I'm sorry," Kuno said again.

"Did you do this?" Hiro pointed at the boy.

Kuno gently put the girl, his sister, down on the floor and stood up. "Some of it. All of it. It is difficult for me to tell how much was fated and how much blame is truly mine, but I played a role."

Saotome stood and stepped between Hiro and Kuno "We should move them outside, closer to the road."

Hiro shook his head. "This is a crime scene, we should disturb it as little as possible."

"Do you think you're going to discover some hidden truth in all this mess? Three people are dead and the boy is the only one halfway responsible for any of it. That's all the information we require right now. We need to get the wounded close to the street in case they can be saved."

"They're dead, Saotome-san. It's too late for any of that."

Hiro saw the man deflate with a deep sigh. "You would know. It's just..."

~Officer _542_,~ Nabiki entreated ~_What are you doing? I can't be dead. I have to save Ranko! She's in trouble!_~

~_Nabiki, don't die! Don't die Nabiki! I couldn't save you!~_ Soun wailed.

Hiro wasn't sure if this was sad, or annoying. "Tell me what happened," he addressed Kuno.

"I heard my sister enter the premises and when I came out to greet her I discovered she was holding hostage Tendo Nabiki and her father…" Kuno went on to relate what had happened. He was solemn if a little wordy in his descriptions. He was just explaining how he released Nabiki's father when Hoko came back.

"Okay," Hoko said as she came back into the atrium. "I called the paramedics; they should be here soon. Is everyone okay?"

"No, everyone is not okay," Genma grumbled. "Everyone is dead."

Hoko stood still. Her expression fell. "No. You said get an ambulance. That means people are still alive. That means…" She ran to one of the bodies. "Nabiki! Come on, Nabiki you can't be dead!"

~~~~~ire~~~~~

Mousse bound after Elder Cologne without really knowing why. Shampoo wasn't an Amazon anymore. He should have left as soon as he found out, but instead he stayed through the farce of Akane's recruitment and now he was following his employer in the middle of the night to help her save his rival. The whole thing didn't make sense. It pissed him off.

He just didn't know what to do. At the moment he had a job and a place to stay. He would have to find some other way to get those if he left Cologne. Furthermore, while before winning Shampoo's affection involved a fairly simple plan of beating her in combat, now things would be more complicated. He would have to woo her somehow. And that was going to be hard enough without being homeless and unemployed.

For the moment at least, until he could figure out some strategy, he was stuck doing what the old hag told him to. He didn't have to put any effort in it though.

When they arrived at the Tendo residence, Mousse saw Ranma in his female form, only he had eight black spider legs coming out of his torso and his arms ended in oversized hands with sharp looking claws at the end of each digit. Ranma's eyes were completely black, and looked larger than normal. The sight disgusted Mousse. This was his competition? This freak? He jumped into position and threw out chains from his sleeves.

Cologne turned around and warned, "No, Mousse!"

But it was too late. The chains wrapped around Ranma's body true enough. But Ranma, or rather the creature who used to be Ranma laughed. It was a terrible laugh. A screaming metal on metal sound that held such contempt and evil that Mousse took a step back.

He should have stepped back more. He should have let go, turned around and ran away. Because in moments the metal of the chains began glowing red. Mousse tried to release the chains but he wasn't fast enough. They were long and a good portion of them was still in nullspace, and the only way into reality for the chains was the pocket of Mousse's robe. The glow spread down the chains with supernatural speed, and his arms burned. He yelped in pain.

The pain didn't stop though. It got worse. So much worse, and so suddenly, that Mouse fell to the ground, screaming.

_You like the pain, don't you, duck boy? _

What? Mousse struggled to get free of the burning chains but every movement brought more hurt.

_That's why you pursue Shampoo. That's why you stayed with the old hag. You like the way they treat you, you like being used._

"No! That's not true! Get off me, Saotome. You win alright? Arrgh!" A new wave of burning pain passed through Mousse. All the way through him. It seemed to carry something unclean as well.

_I can use you. You can be my plaything, duckie. You can be my death doll._

The metal of the chains was melting, wrapping around Mousses arms, dragging him closer to the monster Ranma had become. Then a splash of water and Mousse was a duck. His wings were burned, he could not fly, so he waddled away as fast as he could toward Cologne, who was holding a garden hose in her hand, water still pouring out of the end.

Mousse had never been so scared before. He felt weak getting rescued by elder Cologne. Weak, but grateful nonetheless. The feeling didn't last for long before Cologne picked him up and jumped away from the now white hot chains that Ranma was whipping around toward the both of them.

When Cologne was still for long enough, Mousse used his supple duck's neck to examine himself. It was then that he found the thin band of black metal wrapped around the bone of his right wing.

~~~~~death~~~~~

"I didn't come all the way over here just for you to die on me! Get up! You CAN'T be dead!"

~_I can't be dead!~_ Nabiki agreed.

Hoko nudged her friend with her hand. The body had apparently not yet gone through rigor mortis. Hiro found the whole thing rather macabre. "Hoko, she's gone. Or, at least, she's not where you're looking."

"You see her, don't you?" Hoko accused.

"Yes, she keeps saying that she can't be dead and that she has to save Ranko."

"What's wrong with Ranma?" Saotome was apparently not surprised at all that Hiro could see dead people.

Hiro shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe nothing."

_~Officer 542, I can't be dead!~_

"Can't you say something else? I can't help you right now. I don't know how."

~_Ranko needs help! Iron man!~_

"She just said something about an Iron man."

Genma's face turned a whiter shade of pale. "Let me borrow one of your motorcycles. I need to go. Now."

"Take Hiro's." Hoko said in a monotone. She glanced at Hiro.

Hiro sighed and threw the man his keys. At the rate the night was going, Saotome was liable to find his son or daughter or whatever either dead or killing people. It almost wasn't worth the effort.

"Wait." The voice came from Kuno. "I cannot permit more death this night. I will travel with thee, elder Saotome."

"Haven't you and your sister done enough damage?" Saotome scowled.

"My sister was a victim of sorcery. She was not to blame in this debacle. The woman posing as Tendo Nabiki was a kitsune, and she worked trickery to make my sister attack the Tendo patriarch. Thankfully I dispatched her before she could work further mischief, although I was not able to save my fair sister."

Hiro held up a hand. "Let me get this straight. Your sister attacked and killed Soun Tendo under some magical influence from Nabiki. Then Nabiki attacked your sister, and you killed her, but not before she killed your sister?"

"Verily thou hast the right of it, though there are some differences in how I would tell the tale."

"And you expect me to let you out of my sight?"

Saotome put a restraining hand on Hiro's chest."This is a matter between martial artists. The boy lost his sister, I lost my best friend and his daughter, who was like a niece to me. The correct thing to do here is to mourn and then have a duel. A battle to the death. "

"You're insane! That just increases the problem!"

Genma shook his head. "If you look at a picture too closely, sometimes you fail to see it. That boy deserves to die for what he did and what he allowed his sister to do. I deserve to die for letting any of it to happen to begin with. The truly honorable thing would be for both of us to kill ourselves right now. But if we have a duel, then at least one of us gets to live."

"This should be decided by a court of law."

"And what would a court do? Kill the boy? Throw him in jail? Maybe they would throw me in jail for negligence. But we could both easily escape. And that boy does not deserve to die like a dog. He will die by my hand in combat, or not at all."

"I like your thinking, Saotome-san, though I would prefer you to refrain from referring to me as 'that boy'. We will do battle to the death, but at some other time. At the moment we both share a concern for the pigtailed girl and so we should enact a momentary truce."

Saotome nodded. "I don't like it, but I might need the help. I suppose you can ride with me."

"Hold on a second, here. I didn't say either of you could leave!" Hiro yelled.

"We don't need your permission," Saotome said and bound away far from Hiro's reach. The Kuno boy running right after him. Hiro considered his pistol for one second, but discarded the idea the next. There was no way he'd be able to get a bead on them, and he really didn't want to shoot either of them, at least not fatally, until he was sure of what happened and who was responsible.

Hoko nudged Hiro with her elbow."I guess you should have thought things through a bit before you threw Mr. Saotome your keys, huh?"

"I guess." Hiro felt like a complete cad. He might as well have stayed home for all the good he was doing here. Completely worthless. Then he noticed something. Hoko didn't seem so distraught. In fact she looked almost excited. "Why aren't you more upset?"

"I'm just happy I'm finally going to be able to repay Nabiki for everything she's done for me."

"How do you figure?"

Hoko tilted her head. "What's up with you, Hiro-kun? You were on board when I called you, you almost beat me driving here, now you got this ennui thing going."

"There's nothing we can do, Hoko-chan. Your friend is dead, her father is dead, and the Kuno girl, she's even deader than most dead people. We were too late. We failed. All that's left is the clean up, and I even screwed that up."

Hoko put a hand on each of Hiro's shoulders and looked up into his eyes. "Hiro, get your act together! You're a fucking necromancer! Necromance Nabiki back into her body already!"

Hiro blinked a few times. Despite having a full view of two ghosts for the past ten minutes or so, he had forgotten about his "gift." But so he was a necromancer. So what? "It doesn't work like that."

"And why the hell doesn't it work like that?"

"I…I don't know. I can see ghosts, and they can communicate with me, but that's about it. Besides, what with Nabiki's body approaching room temperature and minus a great deal of blood I don't see how forcing her soul back into it, even supposing I could figure out how to do something like that, would be anything other than uncomfortable for all concerned."

_~I can't be dead!~_ Nabiki protested.

"Hmm…Maybe I might be able to do something about that." Hoko turned away. "Don't look!"

Hiro frowned, shrugged, and turned away.

"Alright you can look now."

Hiro turned back around. Hoko seemed to be holding something in her hand, but Hiro couldn't see what it was. She stared at it for a while, then she shrugged went to Nabiki and put whatever it was in the dead girls mouth. At first nothing happened. Then there was a bright flash of light and heat, and when that subsided Hiro could see Nabiki's chest rise and fall. She was breathing! "What did you do?"

Hoko smiled, "Years of playing video games finally paid off!"

"What do you mean?"

"Phoenix down," Hoko said as if that explained everything. "I guess it's a good thing I don't shave my pubes."

~~~~~End of Chapter 12~~~~~

2/11/09

Hope you enjoyed. Thanks for the reviews.

I'll be posting more info on the forum

It's weird.


	13. Purification

Thyself Known

By Zorknot

DISCLAIMER: Timmy was really looking forward to school today. His first day as a human! He wondered what sorts of things Earth teachers taught human children. He had been studying his viruses, but he didn't know if that would be any help. Human children probably learned more practical things like reciting digits of pi or hopscotch. Timmy found his desk and sat down. Curiously some previous student had carved words painstakingly into the wood of the desk. The words said "This is a fanfiction of the manga/anime Ranma ½ by Rumiko Takahashi. Many of the characters and situations belong to her and the various corporations she is affiliated with. If you have not bought the manga or anime, please do so to give proper credit where it is due."

~~~~~*~~~~~

Ch.13: Purification

"_Power tends to isolate those who hold too much of it. Eventually, they lose touch with reality... and fall."_

-Frank Herbert fr. God Emperor of Dune

~~~~~siege~~~~~

[12:30 am, Tokyo, Japan]

"Okay, Cologne's holding off Ranma for now, but we don't have much time." Tofu turned back toward his love.

"You think she'll attack us?" Kasumi asked, sounding surprised.

"It's a possibility. We don't know what we're dealing with really. A serial killer melded with all the dark aspects of Ranma's psyche? It could be that he wouldn't attack here because this is his home, but then he might attack this place especially for that very reason." Tofu walked through Kasumi's delicate scent into the kitchen. "How much salt do you have?"

"1 3-kilo bag"

"Okay one bag is what, about 9,000 cubic centimeters? And Ranma is about as big as the living room right now, so that's a diameter of about…"

"Ten meters. Are you really going to attempt an exorcism?" Kasumi asked.

"I don't see any other way, Kasumi-chan. Ten meters…That gives a circumference of around 31.4 meters or 3,140 centimeters…"

"You should have enough, Ono-kun. Five centimeters thick, five millimeters thick brings you to a little over 7,500 cubic centimeters. As long as you don't drop the bag. As long as you don't get killed."

Tofu found the salt and held it in the crook of his arm. "I won't." He gave Kasumi a brief kiss before he could think better of it.

The next thing he knew he was watching his love hurriedly sweep the mound of salt on the kitchen floor into a dustbin and then empty it into a bucket. His hands were clenched around the ruined bag. "I'm sorry Kasumi-chan, I…"

Tofu watched in horror as Kasumi headed outside with the bucket of salt. "Kasumi! What are you doing?!"

"Ono-kun, you're the only one here who can perform the ceremony. Someone has to distract Ranko. She is very...emotional right now."

"Kasumi, she…he…Ranma's dangerous!"

"She is not Ranma right now. She's Ranko. She's my little sister."

"She's my daughter." Tofu and Kasumi turned to see Nodoka in the doorway.

Tofu blinked. "I thought you didn't know…?"

Nodoka seemed to swallow something bitter before saying "What's to know? I plan on adopting her as soon as possible. She has been too long with out a proper parent."

Tofu nodded slowly. Nodoka knew more than she let on, but now was not the time for revelations, except, perhaps in the biblical sense. "No offence, Saotome-san, but you may do more harm than good. For reasons I can't go into right now, Ran…ko fears you. She may even hate you a little. Normally she'd keep those things to herself, but she's not herself right now."

"Saotome-san would cause her too much distress," Kasumi agreed, "Nabiki is missing." Kasumi swallowed and straightened. "I'm only doing the proper thing." With that, she rushed outside into the chaos.

~~~~~rice-a-roni~~~~~~~

[7:30 AM San Francisco, USA]

Happosai bounded across the tops of buildings, bolstered for a little while by the adrenaline from his latest caper. Problem was no one was chasing him. Hardly anyone registered his appearance. The whole city seemed rather unimpressed. Morning tends to do that to a city. It wakes up, shakes off the dew of the previous night's activities and starts trudging along again, completely unaware of whatever else might be going on. Happosai ended up stopping by the bay on a small rocky outcropping a little bit a way from the road. He looked at the fog coalescing about the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning sun and lit his pipe. It really was quite beautiful, he thought blowing out a puff of smoke. Something about rise and fall of the bridge's lines rising out of the mist reminded him of the Bayankala mountains. Of Cologne when she was still beautiful, of himself when he was just as beautiful if not more so. Beautiful and stupid.

A lot like Ranma actually. Sure he was driven more by his libido while Ranma was driven by a desire to be a man among men, but Ranma was making the same mistakes. The boy was trying so hard to be a man, but in all the wrong areas. If he had just given up at Jusenkyo, if he could have just accepted that things were the way they were. If he could have just faced his goddamned mother instead of trying to do the impossible, none of this would be happening. You don't become a man by trying to be more male, but by being mature. You can only suppress Yin so long before it lashes back out at you. You can only grip Yang so tightly before it begins to pass away from you like sand from a clenched fist.

Happosai wondered if anyone from Nerima would be surprised to learn that as old as he was, he was still a virgin.

He let out a loud percussive HA! at that. They would probably be more upset at the idea of him ever having sex. It would never happen now of course. All because of that stupid scroll and Cologne's fickle heart.

Happosai found he had made an image of Cologne with his smoke. Cologne as she was, so beautiful, so unattainable. He had been too weak to defeat her. His father had trained him as a professional thief, a low grade spy for the Nyuchezu village. He could hide and escape from people easily enough and if there was something that needed filching he could filch it, but these were not a warrior's skills.

He had been very handsome back then. Many of the other women of the tribe would try to arrange for him to defeat them by accident. But avoiding accidental marriages is something amazon males are taught early in life, and Happosai was not interested in anyone other than Cologne.

Then he had heard of the secret scroll. The scroll that held a technique that allowed you to trade beauty for power.

~~~~~***~~~~~

_Stealing the scroll is not an easy task. Hapu Sai spends a week mulling it over, considering his plans and wondering if it is worth it. The day before the heist, he visits Ku Lon and asks her yet again if she will marry him._

_She says no of course, as she has countless times before._

_"You are very beautiful, and charming," she says, "but you are weak. Perhaps some women wouldn't mind that, but it is very important to me that my children be strong warriors like me and my ancestors before me. I will not marry a weakling or a coward and I know your profession. You are both."_

_"Suppose I could be stronger, would you marry me then?" Hapu Sai asks._

_Ku Lon tilts her head in thought. Then she smiles. "Yes. Get stronger. You don't have to defeat me truly, just land a single true blow, and I will marry you."_

_Of course Hapu Sai ignores this last bit. He remembers it later the same way that you think of come backs to insults years after they should have been forgotten, but now he only wants a sort of blessing to do what he is about to do. He should train. He should get stronger the usual way and challenge Ku Lon properly. But he is stupid._

_He asks, "What if I became ugly, but much stronger. What about then?"_

_Ku Lon's brow crinkles ever so slightly into the cutest of frowns. "I think I would still marry you. Besides if you defeated , then I would be honor bound to marry you anyway wouldn't I? I like you well enough it wouldn't be hard for me."_

~~~~~***~~~~~

And that was all Happosai had needed. Without saying another word he had left Cologne and put his plan into action. In retrospect, Cologne had probably had been thinking of Happosai's graceful features marred with scars, or his nose broken into a distorted shape. Something that in some eyes would be an improvement. She had probably never considered that Happosai would return to her as an absurdly small little bean of a man with immense amounts of raw power at his command.

As different as he looked, there was still no doubt it was he that stole the scroll. He was reviled by the entire village. They could not capture him or even banish him, as he was far too quick for them, but Cologne would have nothing to do with him anymore. She would not even talk with him as a friend. And of course he had little chance with any other woman.

Happosai shook his head and waved his hand through the smoky visage of Cologne. He had already gotten revenge for what she had done to him. Even if, in his heart, he knew that it was all his own doing.

He sighed. The fog was showing the first signs of clearing: an errant gust of wind cutting through the clouds. If he waited longer, Happosai might have been able to see the bridge bathed in full sunlight, but he had some necessities to take care of. He hefted his bag of treasures back onto his back and bounded into the city looking for a suitable source of feminine ki.

~~~~~pubes~~~~~

[12:30 AM Toyko, Japan]

Hiro blinked, at Hoko's…disturbing…resurrection technique, filed it all under "information to freak out about later" and crouched to inspect Nabiki's body more closely. The wound was still there on Nabiki's neck, but it looked cauterized now. She looked anemic from blood loss, but stable.

~_I need to save Ranko.~_ Ghost Nabiki informed him.

It was odd how Hiro never had put it together before that ghosts were stupid. He had always been too weirded out about them to really pay attention. "Look, Nabiki," He said in tones one might use to calm a petulant child, "It's your body! It's ready for you now. You can save Ranko all you want once you're inside it. "

~_I can't be dead!~_

"I know, Nabiki. And you _won't_ be dead, just so long as you climb back in your nice comfy skin. Come on now, that's it…" And then Hiro did something extremely, utterly, insanely stupid.

He reached for Nabiki's ghost with his hand.

One second he was realizing this might not be the best of ideas, the next he wasn't realizing much at all. Then his eyes fluttered open. He felt weak. His neck hurt. He…wasn't a he.

Hoko's concerned face entered his field of vision. "Nabiki?"

"Gods DAMN it!" Hiro grumbled in Nabiki's voice.

"Um…That would be me." Nabiki said in Hiro's voice. Well at least Nabiki was alive, and not repeating the same things over and over again. "Is this permanent?" He/she asked.

"Oh I hope the fuck not." Hiro said, pulling Nabiki's body into a sitting position. Nabiki's body wanted very much to vomit, and Hiro wasn't sure how long he could placate it before complying. "I thought I was done with all this girl shit."

"There's a story there I'm definitely going to want to hear sometime when nobody's life is in danger. Hoko? Is that you?"

"Yep! Surprise! I'm alive!" Hoko rushed to embrace her friend. Was it insane to be jealous of his body getting her attentions without him in it? Maybe. But it was his girlfriend and his body and he was well on his way from simply being annoyed by Nabiki, to outright loathing her. How could he have ever found her attractive?

"I thought…I thought I killed you." Nabiki frowned with Hiro's face.

"That was Copycat, Nabiki, not you. You have his memories from when he was using your body that's all. You're not a killer."

Nabiki pulled away from Hoko. Hiro followed her gaze to Kodachi. "I am now."

Hiro looked back at his stolen body. So Nabiki killed Kodachi. This could cause some problems.

" I've never felt so out of control before." And there was a flash of neon green the moment Nabiki said the word "control". A flash of green that never quite left the eyes.

Hiro wanted to arrest her, to have her go to trial for her crimes. But he wasn't sure how to go about doing that. Especially considering he was in her body at the moment.

"Well, hey, you're alive, right?" Hoko punched Nabiki-in-Hiro's-body lightly in the shoulder

"It seems that way." Nabiki looked over the bodies. Hiro watched the now green eyes of his body widen at the sight of Soun Tendo's body. Nabiki approached her father slowly and knelt next to him. "He's dead, isn't he."

"Yes," Hiro attempted to stand, thought better of it, and managed a kneel. "Though being dead isn't as permanent a condition as it was a few minutes ago as it turns out." Hiro could see the shadowy form of Soun Tendo standing near his body.

_~She's made it. She's alive. I can go now~_

"Actually, wait…Hoko, you need to do your thing quickly. I think Tendo-san might be a flight risk."

Hoko nodded. She looked at her hand. "I still have some from before."

Nabiki stood. "Hoko, let me clarify something, because I've kind of had a long day. You can bring people back to life?"

Hoko shook her head. "I can bring their bodies back to life. Hiro apparently has to guide their souls back to their bodies."

"Since when exactly were you able to do this?"

~_She's alive. I can go. It's okay now~_

Hiro groaned, though he didn't like how it sounded coming out of Nabiki's throat. "We don't have time for this. She's part phoenix, she awakened to her powers when she died. I've been a necromancer for a while longer, but I've been in denial. Together, apparently, we can make zombies happen, though it's a bit more Wes Craven than George Romero."

Hoko raised her hand as if she were in class. "You mean that movie about serpents and rainbows that doesn't have any serpents or rainbows in it?"

"Yes."

"That pissed me off. I mean I thought I was going to be watching some big budget American fantasy movie, you know something about a sea serpent and a magical rainbow bridge?...And instead I got that boring shlock. "

"Hoko? Focus?" Hiro gestured to Nabiki's father. Then he realized she couldn't _see_ Nabiki's father, so he gestured to Nabiki's father's body instead. Unfortunately this made him look at Nabiki's hands, which were not at all like his hands. He tried to put them out of his line of sight by crossing his arms but this just called attention to how delicate Nabiki's arms were and how thin her torso was. Hiro wanted hit something or bellow out in frustration. He bit it back though, because it would only come out as a girlish scream, which would make him feel even worse.

Hoko's eyes found Soun's body, and she straightened. "Right. I'm sorry, it's just that movie left a gaping hole where two hours of my life used to be." Hoko knelt next to the corps and inserted her "down" into Soun's mouth. The same light show that occurred with Nabiki happened again, and Soun started breathing. "In science class, the teacher showed us a prism? And instead of thinking 'Oh look at all the colors!' I was like 'Hey that rainbow reminds me of this crappy American movie I saw where nothing interesting happened.'"

Nabiki frowned. "Hoko, what did you put in my father's mouth?"

Hoko rubbed her arms with her hands nervously. "You know, it's really less disturbing if I don't tell you."

Hoko's movement made Hiro realize that he was cold. All Nabiki's body was wearing was a men's brown gi, boxers and a t-shirt all of which was at least two sizes too large. Aside from hanging off of the body in ways that made parts of the anatomy uncomfortably obvious for Hiro, it also let the cool autumn air in. "I thought you could turn into a man now or something." Hiro grumbled as he forced Nabiki's body to stand. Colored lights colored his vision. He had to guide Soun back into his body, but Nabiki's body was still extremely weak.

"I could," Nabiki seemed to be thinking about what Hiro said, "but I don't think I can anymore. I mean, I guess I'm a man now, but I don't think I could change forms if I was still in my body." Nabiki closed her green eyes. "Shit. Ranma trusted me with his manhood, with everything that made him who he was, and what did I do? I got a fucking panic attack and burned it all away. I can't even feel him anymore. Do you feel him at all Kawagami-chan?"

"No." Hiro was a little preoccupied with not passing out.

Nabiki let out a growl of frustration. "Look, do you need me here, to save my father and Kodachi? I need to-"

"See Ranko. Yes, I know." Hiro made Nabiki's body take several deep breaths in an attempt to get more oxygen to the brain. "How are you going to get to him…ah…her though? Mr. Saotome took my motorcycle and I don't think Hoko will let you use hers."

"Why wouldn't she? She's let me borrow it before. It's okay, right, Hoko?"

"No, Nabiki. It's not." Hoko's expression was suddenly serious. "No one is riding my bike but me and whoever rides with me. It's the new 'no one fucks with Hoko's shit' rule. I can drive you over there and drop you off, but I've got to be driving."

"And while I don't need you, I do need Hoko-chan." Hiro was a little worried about Kodachi's ghost not being anywhere around and Soun seemed to be giving up the ghost in a distressingly literal sense.

"It's good to be needed." Hoko smiled brightly. "Couldn't I just drop her off and come back though?"

Hiro eyed Soun. ~_She's alive. I've done all I can. I'm tired. I'm ready to see my wife now~_ The man's spiritual body grew sporadically dimmer, like a candle just before the wax runs out .

Answering Hoko, Hiro shook Nabiki's head. "We don't have time for that. Nabiki, your father's fading fast. You need to keep him here or I won't be able to help him."

Nabiki was silent for a moment. "What can I do about it?" she asked finally.

"Tell him you need him. Tell him why he has to stay."

Nabiki just stood there, motionless and silent, her eyes fixed at some point on the ground..

"Say something, Nabiki, there isn't much time."

"I can't. I can't say something like that and mean it. Do I love him? Yes. But do I need him?" Nabiki's eyes met Hiro's. "No. I don't need him. Not anymore." Nabiki looked toward the exit. "Come on, Hoko. We better get going."

Hoko looked uncertain.

Hiro saw Soun's ghost flicker almost out of existence, and he felt panic rise within him. "Nabiki! Whatever you have against your father it's not worth it. He's leaving. He's losing the will to live. Maybe you don't need him but you got to say you do. Just say it, otherwise it will be like you're killing him!"

Nabiki paused," All those times I needed a father, he wasn't there. I provided for our family. I kept us off the streets. All he did in all that time was sulk." Nabiki continued toward Hoko's motorcycle. "Besides, there isn't time."

Hiro tried to make Nabiki's body stand but it just collapsed. He let out a growl of frustration which sounded jarringly feminine coming out of Nabiki's throat. "You're killing him, Nabiki! I can't get to him right now. I need to guide him to his body. I just need a minute, damn it, and I can save him. Just come back here and lie to him for a minute and then you can go off and save your worthless fiancée."

Hoko moved to block Nabiki's path. "Hiro has a point, don't you think?"

"I can't!" Nabiki yelled. "I told you already I can't!"

"Just say something to him, just say how you feel."

"Daddy." Nabiki turned slowly and addressed the air, looking up and around as if watching out for bats. "I love you. But let's face it, you've been dead a long time. All you've ever wanted to do is see mom again. Well here's your chance. Either let her go, and be a father again, or leave us and be with her. It doesn't matter to me. I had to let you go a long time ago."

How could she say that? Didn't she know her father was going to die for real?

~_I need her, Nabiki. You don't need me, but I need her.~_ Soun's ghost grew dimmer, flickering wildly now.

Hiro crawled closer to Soun, but he was still too far away. He wasn't going to make it. Damn it! He was in Nabiki's body, maybe he could do something. "Daddy!" he called out to the fading figure of Soun. "Daddy! Don't leave, I need you!"

~_I've waited so long. I'm ready to see my wife now. I'm ready to be with my Kimiko~_

Soun's ghost faded further, until he was just a slightly discolored patch of air. Then, he was gone. His body filled with air one last time and then grew still again.

"He's dead." Hiro said the words not to Nabiki or anyone else, but to himself. Soun was not his father, he barely knew him, but being in Nabiki's body, forced to see things from her perspective, as Soun slipped away was too much. He had learned CPR, became a cop, he had even became a freaking necromancer, and yet still nothing changed. He couldn't save Soun. Just like he couldn't save his own father so many years ago. Just like before, he was forced to watch as a life slipped away in front of him. The only difference was that now he could see it happen even more clearly. He sat up and addressed Nabiki. "Give me back my body, Tendo."

"No. I won't. I don't even know how if I wanted to, and my body is too weak. I need to see Ranko as soon as possible."

Hiro growled through gasping breaths "Give me back…my body… you fucking whore!"

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Come on, Hoko, let's leave before he gets even more impolite." Nabiki made hand movements toward the exit.

Hoko remained where she was. "Nabiki, I think you should give Hiro back his body."

"We don't have time for this!" Nabiki threw up her hands. "Ranko is very weak right now. I'm supposed to be able to feel her, but I can't. She could be in serious trouble. I just need to make sure she's okay and THEN I'll come back and give back Hiro's body."

"Tendo" Hiro growled, " I have saved your life. Twice. What have you done for me? You've fucked some other guy in front of my face and now you've stolen my body from me. You know who else stole my body from me? Copycat. And I would have sworn the next time anybody did that to me I would have killed him. I don't know where I got it in my head that you had some element of human decency. But it's blatantly obvious now that you don't, and if I had known that before I would have let you rot."

"Look, I'm sorry about all this, but let me be perfectly clear here." Nabiki's eyes glowed green in Hiro's face. "Ranko is the most important thing to me in my life right now. There is no way either of you is going to stop me."

Rage kept building up in Hiro. Rage that he hadn't felt since he had punched that murderer back when he worked homicide. Nabiki had some fancy power now, with that green aura of hers, but he had a power too. All he had to do was embrace it. "I am a necromancer." Hiro made Nabiki's body step forward. He also made his own body step forward. Nabiki's eyes widened in astonishment. "I have raised you from the dead. You are my minion. I own you."

"Nobody owns me!" Nabiki was suddenly enveloped in green, but just as suddenly the aura winked out.

Hiro felt his eyes burning. He could see now a pale blue line connecting him to Nabiki. There was another, fainter one connecting him to Hoko, but he ignored this one. He pulled on Nabiki's line and she jerked forward. "You will not attempt to fight me again. You will walk toward me, and then you will give me back my body."

Nabiki walked jerkily along the blue line connecting her to Hiro. When she was finally next to him he raised Nabiki's hand and his hand, both of which were glowing faintly blue. He made them touch. There was a moment of disorientation and he was back in his own body, looking down at Nabiki who collapsed to the ground after the switch. As Hiro watched, a mark appeared on Nabiki's forehead. It made him smile. It was the kanji for "not" as in "not dead."

"Okay," Hoko spoke into the silence. "I guess that could have gone better."

~~~~~panda on a motorcycle~~~~~

Paws weren't the best appendages with which to operate a motor vehicle, but an inevitable puddle on the way to the Tendo residence made dealing with them a necessity for Genma.

"What manner of witchery is this?" Kuno demanded from behind him. With some awkward maneuvering Genma was able to slow down the motorcycle and aim it at an inconspicuous looking curb side. He fell on his side, the fur of his shoulder and leg skidding on the asphalt. The bike continued on into the green concrete pylons that adorned the curb. Thankfully, Genma did not live in a stylized action movie, and so the motorcycle did not explode into an enormous ball of flames. At least, not yet.

Genma clambered up to his hind legs and limped over to the bike to see the damage and to see if he could still walk. The motorcycle seemed okay for the most part, and his leg wasn't too bad. The fur had helped cushion the impact.

Tatewake was still picking himself from the ground. "Now is not the time for these tedious ninja tricks, Saotome-san. I know not how you procured a panda to exchange yourself with, but your tactic is pointless. I will simply take the conveyance myself and get to my love before you. "

Genma felt a curious pressure. As if the air were suddenly viscous. As if his thoughts were momentarily refracted like light into a pool of water. He drew a sign out of null space, calling upon the minor demon all practitioners of hidden weapons techniques paid fealty to. Not as powerful or as dangerous as the Tendo demon. Just a mindless extradimensional being that would store things as long as it was properly fed. Of course if it wasn't properly fed it would eventually consume Genma, but he would get plenty of warning before that happened. His sign read, "It's a curse nitwit!" He turned it around. "I turn into a panda with cold water."

"I don't know now what manner of jest this is, but if you are laughing, you are the only one doing so." Kuno spoke to the empty street around him, not to Genma.

Genma felt the pressure again. The boy was denying the obvious, and his demon was getting more powerful. At the moment, too many things depended on Genma being a cursed man rather than a panda that was used as a decoy in a kawarimi maneuver. It was too difficult to change that one thing without changing so many other things. But the boy was distraught, and the demon seemed to be getting strength from that.

This was not an ideal situation.

"These are dire times, my sister has been killed, I refuse to be subjected to this any longer." Tatewaki strode to the motorcycle. Genma moved to block his path.

If unchecked, the Kuno demon might just convince reality that Genma was never anything other than a panda. And then Nodoka would have never known him, Ranma would not exist…and the ijuu would never have started up again.

Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Genma felt the universe press in on him tighter, trying to squeeze him into a new shape. _No. I must exist. For my family, for myself. This reality is the one I must fight for. _

Reality eased its pressure. _Damn it!_ It had been too close that time.

The boy was too dangerous.

Genma pulled a hot kettle of water from null space. The more motile or dynamic an object, the more energy it took to store. Taking into account all the different movements going on within it at any one time, hot water was incredibly complicated. He'd have to feed the hidden weapons demon a lot more than usual to store another kettle after this, but this was necessary.

He had to convince Tatewaki of the way things really were, something not even the silver tongued Nabiki could do. Genma wasn't that good at talking to people even before his curse, but he had to try.

He had convince the boy, because otherwise he would have to kill him.

~~~~~grains of salt~~~~~

Kasumi knew this wasn't going to work. But that was precisely why she was doing it. She tipped the bucket of salt to start making the line, not sure whether she should try to ignore the sight of the monster Ranma had become attacking the Amazon matriarch as she somersaulted and parried each blow. The old woman was getting tired…but Kasumi was pouring salt in a line right now and it was rude to stare wasn't it?

She had to pour just the right amount. Some of the salt might have been lost when Ono ripped the bag and there was really only just enough to make one circle. Too much of a pile in one place and it could be ruined. Just like baking really.

Almost half a meter done. Cologne was doing a great job of providing a distraction. It was a shame that Kasumi never got a chance to really talk with the woman. She probably had hundreds of interesting stories. Those were the happiest moments that Kasumi could remember in her life. Family and friends, gathered around a table, telling stories. In Ono's clinic only two days ago, Kasumi had been able to do that with Ranma and Nabiki. Earlier tonight she had had a wonderful conversation with Mrs. Saotome, and Ono. She wanted to have more conversations like that.

It wasn't fair.

Kasumi swallowed, and felt hot tears well up in her eyes. She blinked them away. There was a superstition. Spilled salt was bad luck. A curse. You had to cry enough tears to dissolve all the salt that was spilled in order to be free of it.

A full meter now. One thirtieth the way around, but then Kasumi already knew this was hopeless. She kept going though. Not out of faith. Not really. It wasn't even optimism if she was honest. She knew this moment would come as soon as she swore to be Ranko and Ranma's sister. There was no avoiding it. But still, it was nice to think that there was still a chance. It was just nicer to see the good part of things. For instance, look how Ranko absorbed Airanman! She won! She didn't realize it, but she had infected the being who sought to infect her. What was happening now was a desperation move. A self destruct mechanism. Ranko was a hero!

So the fact that Ranko and the demon were no longer separable, and so an exorcism would probably kill her, even supposing Kasumi could make it all the way around Ranko without her noticing, wasn't what was making her sad. She knew that it wasn't going to work. Just like she knew that Ranko wasn't going to die, that she would regain her male body and that as Ranma she would be happy again… just as long as she did what she had to. Just as long as she made the right decision.

***

_Kasumi has been visiting Shuuichi at the Kusoaru house every day for a month now. The frail boy always smiling when she enters his room. Always drawing pictures of flowers, birds, seascapes with masted ships in the horizon. Pictures also of a strange ethereal being of light. Pictures that at first seem like random faint lines on the paper, but that resolve into a face, a body, long thin arms._

_Shuuichi is dying. He is Kasumi's best friend. Sometimes when she sees him he enters a coughing fit that lasts for an hour. Sometimes it's so bad that Kasumi can't help but cry. She can't do anything about it. She promises the boy that one day she'll become a doctor so she could cure him._

_The boy smiles at this. "You're right. You're gonna be a doctor some day. But you won't be able to cure me. I'm dying tomorrow."_

_"What? You shouldn't say that! How could you know that?"_

_"She tells me things when it gets bad." The boy nods to one of his drawings of the ethereal lady. "She says that what you're doing now is more important. Being there for people, even when it's hard. That's more important than trying to keep them alive."_

_Kasumi is nine years old. She says, "That's stupid! If you're dead how can I be there for you?"_

***

Three meters. One tenth around the circle. Kasumi knew this was going to happen, but she didn't know WHEN it would happen. She thought she still had a few days. Maybe a week, before Nabiki and Ranko/Ranma were separated and Ranko was overcome. That was the distressing thing about knowing the future. It was like walking with one's eyes closed, knowing any minute there would be a wall, or a cliff. Maybe Aurora was wrong this time, maybe the exorcism would take place and Ranko would be free of the demon's remnants. Maybe Kasumi wouldn't have to do what Aurora had shown her time and time again over the years.

But Aurora hadn't been wrong yet

***

_Aurora first appears to Kasumi at Shuuichi Kusoaru's funeral. The adults are consoling each other, saying things like it's terrible that they only see each other when something like this happens. That they should get in touch afterwards. "They won't." A vague outline of light, a mere impression of a female form sits on a window sill, blending in with the dappling of the sun through the curtain. "There will be more funerals. They will nod their head at each other, uncomfortable. Then they will never speak to each other again. Death is scary to most people."_

_Kasumi takes a step toward the light being, waiting for her to turn out to be some trick of the light, like that one time she thought she saw a ghost in her bedroom window. But the being moves like a living person. "You're not scared though, are you?" The being asks._

_Kasumi shakes her head. "I don't want Shuuichi to be dead. I don't want to be dead either."_

_"But you stayed with him anyway. You made sure he didn't die alone. That's a very scary thing."_

_"Why?" Kasumi asks._

_"Because it reminds people that they too will one day die."_

_"Oh." Kasumi looks down, then quickly looks up again to see if the being is still there. She is._

_"There is going to be a lot of death soon. You will have to live through it. You are still very young, but not young enough for it not to affect you."_

_The statement is mostly lost on Kasumi at the time, though she remembers it later."How come I can see you now? Why couldn't I see you before?"_

_" Shuuichi created me. He wanted me to be there so much. He believed in me. And now you believe in me. It is enough to allow me to exist. Shuuichi used to call me Aurora, after the northern lights. You may use that name too if you wish." Aurora's voice is musical and breathy, like wind chimes before a storm._

_Aurora floats from the sill to Kasumi. She is small; the place where her eyes seem to be is level with Kasumi's eyes. "You will have to make a choice now. A very serious choice. A choice someone as young as you shouldn't have to make." She bends her head to the side, " You have just watched your best friend die. You have seen how terrible that is. Are you willing to experience that again?"_

_"No!" Kasumi cries, shaking her head vehemently._

_"Very well. I will respect your decision." Aurora recedes a little._

_"But…" Kasumi wrings her hands together nervously. "If it has to happen. If someone has to die? I want to be there for them."_

_Aurora brightens. "Then I can help you. The future already seems less dark!"_

_Less dark. But still dark. Very dark indeed._

***

Almost a fourth through the circle, Aurora appeared. Kasumi knew why before the being spoke. It was time. "You know this won't work."

Kasumi nodded.

"You're stalling. Your window is closing. The brighter future is getting further away."

Kasumi grit her teeth. The metal of the bucket handle bit into her hand as she clenched it tighter.

"I don't want to die," Kasumi whispered.

"Every second of a life is a death. Every choice marks the end of one form of existence and the beginning of another. If you do not choose yourself, your choices will be made for you. And that too is a form of death." Time was slowing down. A scent of rain filled Kasumi's nostrils. It wasn't enough to calm her though. She hadn't been so scared before. She hadn't had so much to live for.

"There has to be another way." Kasumi closed her eyes not wanting to see Aurora's beautiful, vague form. But there it was still, in her vision even while she clenched her lids against it.

"Who are you, Tendo Kasumi? Are you the gentle, yet brave caregiver, the bedrock of your family, the calming hand amid a whirlwind of roiling tempers? Or, are you a poor, deluded soul, desperately holding on to an outdated sense of tradition and hiding from your pain behind pots and pans?"

Kasumi let out a breath like escaping steam. It was a scream without vocalization passed between her teeth, but she relaxed. She dropped the bucket. "I know who I am." She spoke softly, but resolutely. Aurora nodded and faded away.

Kasumi stepped toward Ranko. The white hot chain that Ranko took from Mousse flew before her in an instant. Kasumi felt it hit her arm and stomach. She was knocked down. The heat of the chain burned through her clothing.

Ranko turned. She was almost three feet taller than Kasumi's standing height with her metallic spider legs, and she seemed immense from her position on the ground. Ranko looked down at her. Kasumi was hit with a paroxysm of fear. It was something she couldn't do anything about. Something instinctual.

But it isn't our instincts that make us who we are.

***

_A hospital room. Down the hall from her mother's room. Aurora has guided her here._

_The young man lies in the bed, an abnormally small woman crying beside him. He is so much like Shuuichi. "What is wrong with him?" Kasumi asks. She has not yet learned tact. She is, if anything, more direct than most girls her age._

_"His name is Tofuro Ono, though he likes to go by Tofu." Aurora informs her. "His father died in the Awakening. Tofu was one of the possessed." The being of light glides to Kasumi, and places a scintillating hand, or really a representation of a hand, on her shoulder. It feels slightly warm, but it makes the hairs on her neck stand up. "He is like the person who caused your mother's illness."_

_Kasumi didn't see the fight her mother had with the smoke demon. Her father had told the story beaming with pride, and Uncle Saotome had nodded at each event and provided commentary, almost as impressed as his friend. Her mother blushed and tried to say it wasn't a big deal. But she also coughed. And she couldn't stop coughing._

_Later she found out the smoke demon had once been a firefighter. During the ijuu, he gained the ability to control smoke. When the awakening happened, he went insane from the power. Kasumi began to hate the man when her mother had to be taken to the hospital. And Aurora just said that this boy was just like him._

_Kasumi sets her jaw and steps closer to the bed. She has a terrible urge to strangle the boy._

_The small woman, Ono's mother, turns to Kasumi, tears in her eyes. Kasumi takes a startled breath. She doesn't like it when adults cry. They've been doing it a lot recently. It's like they are telling her there is no magical time when understanding comes and things stop hurting. There is no immunity to life._

_"Who are you?" the woman seems confused._

_Kasumi tells the woman her name, but doesn't say anything else, caught by the drama of the scene she finds herself in._

_" Your mother is probably looking for you, child. These are not the times for children to be by themselves."_

_Kasumi is silent as she and the woman stand, staring at each other. Kasumi sees her own pain reflected in the woman's expression and she feels herself pulled toward her until her arms are wrapped around the small woman in an embrace. Kasumi doesn't know why she does this, but when she remembers this years later she reasons that much like the physical force, emotional gravity can sometimes bring people together as well as bring them down._

_Ono's mother holds the embrace for longer than usual. She is alone now. Her husband dead, her only son in a coma, his condition worsening. Kasumi learns all this later when Ono's mother tells her story._

_The teenaged Tofu is not inherently evil, Kasumi learns from the mother's story. He was seduced, tricked, manipulated. He is as much a victim as any that died by his hand. Maybe there is evil inside him, but there is also an innocent boy._

_"How can I help?" Kasumi asks._

_"You've already helped, child. Really your family must be worried about you, you should go."_

_But Kasumi isn't talking to Tofu's mother._

_"He will die soon," Aurora says, "He has almost no ki left. There is a way you can help, but it means you must make another decision."_

_Kasumi nods._

_"If you help this young man, then you and he will both die eleven years from now."_

_"If I don't?" Kasumi asks._

_"Who are you talking to?" Tofu's mother tries to find what Kasumi is looking at._

_Aurora replies. "Tofuro Ono will die in a few minutes if you do nothing. Beyond that I cannot tell you until you make your decision."_

_Eleven years seems a long way off to a nine-year-old. "I'll do It," Kasumi says._

_Aurora stretches then into a long, thin filament connecting Kasumi to Tofu. Kasumi feels pain throughout her body. The sensation is first like a bruise on her entire frame, then it intensifies, becoming a burning and a cutting and strangely a chilling filling all at once. She would scream, but every muscle is taught. All she can let out is a strangled gargling from her strained larynx. Gradually the pain seems to come from two different places. She crumples to the floor and yet she also doesn't seem to move at all. As the pain begins to subside, she opens here eyes, and finds that she is some how looking at both the floor and the ceiling at the same time._

_"Tofuro doesn't really exist anymore. His demon completely devoured him leaving only his body, a husk with only memories. What I have just allowed you to do is split your soul in two. One half of you will live your life as Tofuro Ono, the other as Kasumi Tendo." Aurora's breathy voice reverberates through Kasumi. She doesn't really understand._

_Another person who doesn't understand is Tofu's mother. What she has seen is a girl arch her back and let out a terrible strangling noise while a curving beam shoots from the girl into her son. This is not tolerable to her._

_"You little bitch!" Tofu's mother screams. "Get away from my son!" She picks Kasumi up and hurls her through the door and out of the room. Kasumi's hip slams into the opposite wall of the hospital hallway. A crack appears in the plaster. "Haven't you demons had enough with him? Stay away from me!" The woman slams the door so forcibly the wired glass in the small square window bursts into tiny shards._

_Kasumi now only feels herself, but she feels some part of herself is missing. She begins to panic. She tries to get up. A terrible pain suggests that something is broken._

_"Eleven years from now," Aurora continues, as if nothing has happened, "You will rejoin with Tofuro. When that happens, you will cease to be either Kasumi, or Tofuro, and become a full person once more. For now, you must be there for your family. The part of you that lives as Tofuro will become a doctor and learn what can be learned from books. You will learn patience, perseverance, and unconditional love."_

_Kasumi screams in pain, because now she can. In her short life, she has never felt anything so terrible. Before she felt pain but it was like it was something apart from her. This is raw, physical. And there's this terrible feeling of something missing. She knows where it is, it's just behind that door, but when she tries to get up to get through the door, she feels the pain from her hip again._

_Aurora coalesces before Kasumi's eyes. "Tofu's mother is right. I am a demon. In the next awakening, I will destroy you."_

***

"Kasumi-chan! What are you doing?" Tofu called out.

Kasumi got up, pushing off of the ground with hands that were now covered in scintillating lights. Her entire body was like that. Kasumi gasped. She swallowed, closed her eyes, and placed her hand gently on one of the red hot metal spider legs that Ranko was using. She relaxed, and allowed herself to be immolated.

~~~~~awkward zombie silence~~~~~

"Should I try to help Kodachi now?" Hoko nodded toward the dead gymnast.

Hiro blinked a few times. All he could see at first was blue and black. Residues of life. Pieces of death. Slowly, reality as he was used to seeing it came back into focus. "You can try, but I don't think it will work. I don't see her ghost anywhere. It's like when I was working homicide. I could always tell the suicides, because I felt nothing from them. They wanted nothing more from life and so they left no residue behind."

"Kodachi wanted to die?" Nabiki asked, apparently surprised.

Hiro scowled at Nabiki. Before realizing what he was doing, he used his power to knock her flatter to the ground. "Maybe Kodachi didn't know it herself, she obviously died violently." He turned his gaze to the subtly shimmering wall of the Kuno's ersatz palace. "Mr. Saotome said that the Kunos were masters of denial, but I guess in order to be in denial some part of you has to know the truth. I suppose in a way, death is the most ardent denial of life."

Hoko tilted her head in thought. "You know, that makes so much sense… it doesn't make any sense at all." She turned toward Kodachi. "I'm going to try anyway."

Hiro nodded and turned his attention back to Nabiki. She glared at him from the ground. He knew it was within his power to kill her again, to remove her from her body either directly or by causing it to rot. Part of him wanted to too, but it wasn't for a good reason. Nabiki hadn't killed his father. She hadn't even really done anything to her own father. She may have killed Kodachi, but that was probably in self defense, as much as part of him would like to think she was more evil so he could get rid of her. If Soun had wanted to live he could have, Nabiki had just given him permission to die. Who was to say that wasn't the right thing to do? He hated her for it, all the same.

There was a flash of light as Hoko's treatment did its work on Kodachi's body. Maybe people had to die, maybe some people ought to die, but not anyone Hiro cared about. Not on his watch. If Hiro could, he would have brought his father back from the dead that very moment. Only he couldn't. It was too long ago, and there was no body for him to go back to even supposing Hiro could find his soul among the throng of other dead.

Whatever the case, there was no reason to kill the Tendo girl for making a different decision. Hiro sighed. "Um…as long as you don't try to kill me or Hoko or anything, I, uh release you."

"Thanks a lot. You're a mensch really." Nabiki tried to stand, but was having the same trouble Hiro had before. "Look," she sighed, "Maybe I was a little heavy handed earlier, maybe I got a little bit of power and it corrupted me a tad. But I'm not screwing around here. I really need to get to Ranko. Maybe you don't care about her, but she could potentially kill a lot of people if she goes the wrong kind of insane. I…might not be that much better, but you've got me covered, and I'm the only one who might be able to stop her. So could we please, please stop resurrecting dead people for a minute and maybe save a few people from dying in the first place?"

Nabiki had a point. "Hoko?"

"Yeah?"

"You did your part. I'll watch over Kodachi and wait for the ambulance if you want to take Tendo to see her fiancée."

Hoko eyed her friend warily. "I'm not so sure I do."

Nabiki put up her hands. "I'll behave. I can barely move right now anyway. I'm sorry I'm not acting like much of a friend. I'm really glad you're alive, it's just there's a lot at stake here."

Hoko seemed to let go of some burden as she smiled and lent Nabiki a shoulder for her to lean on. "Okay, but no sneaky turning evil while I'm not looking, got it?"

Hiro nodded. "I'm trusting you again, Tendo. If you harm Hoko in any way I will not hesitate to kill you."

Nabiki's eyes flashed green as she said, "You have my word." She smiled sadly. "And it's not 'Tendo' any more."

"What are you talking about?" Hoko asked.

" My father's will dictates that should he die, custody of his children should go to Genma and Nodoka Saotome." Nabiki let out a sigh, and for a moment Hiro could see some of the anguish lurking below Nabiki's hard exterior. "The schools are joined, just as he would have wanted."

Hiro didn't like how convenient it seemed though. "How do you know his will says that?"

"Because I drew it up." Nabiki gave Hiro a sidelong glance. "You really don't know me that well, do you, Kawagami-chan?"

Hiro just set his jaw as Hoko and Nabiki Saotome walked away. He didn't know Nabiki that well, it was true. He had control of her now if he wanted it, but somehow he felt like he had a tiger by its tail. Nabiki seemed suddenly in her element, almost as if by not being in control, she was somehow more in control.

The whole mess gave Hiro a headache. He watched Hoko and Nabiki leave the Kuno atrium, and he felt an incredible wave of exhaustion hit him. He sat down beside Kodachi's body and Soun's, barely stifling a yawn. He wondered if anything else screwed up would happen before he could get to sleep tonight.

As he watched Kodachi's body , like a mechanical toy winding down, slowly stopping its breathing, he wondered if he would ever be able to sleep again.

Then the ghosts started showing up. Just shadows through his sunglasses. Screaming for vengeance, for pity, for one last chance. Hiro lifted the shades from his eyes with a hesitant hand. They all swarmed around Kodachi's body knocking each other back, the weak and meek ones quickly thwarted by the stronger, more insistent ones. It was a never ending kaleidoscope of carnage, that Hiro could only watch dumbfounded, until slowly, the ghosts began to realize that they couldn't possess the body by themselves.

A ten year old girl came up to Hiro, holding her own head in her hands. ~_They killed my parents. They killed my little brother. They killed me. They must pay._~

"Well that answers that question. No sleep for me." Hiro mumbled to himself. The little girl would haunt his dreams forever. Unless…

Hiro touched Kodachi's body.

~_They killed my parents. My little brother!_~ , the girl insisted.

Hiro touched the girl's ghostly hand.

~~~~~echo chamber~~~~~

"Who are you?" the voice asked.

He she didn't know. The question annoyed him her on a fundamental level. So many people wanted to know that, didn't they? Well they could just fuck off!

"Who do you want to be?"

"I hate you."He she said, "I really hate you." He she squeezed Kasumi's neck with the white hot chain. But the voice isn't Kasumi's voice. It's something else. "Honestly! You have no right to ask these questions. You're just a peasant. I'm the best there is."

"No, Ranma. No, Kodachi. No, Akane. You're not."

"Oh yeah?" She he growls, forms a Tobu Sennuki and knocks Cologne through the wall surrounding the Tendo property.

"You were never the best." The voice spoke calmly. He she could smell the solidity of concrete after the first drops of rain. A tinge of ozone. "Happosai, Cologne, Tofu, even your father …they were all better than you. And there are others, many others, who you have yet to meet. On some level, you know this. You have to, otherwise you would never have tried so hard to improve yourself. Furthermore, egardless of what your level may have been, you are certainly not the best now. It would be difficult for you even to determine _what_ you were the best in, would it not?"

"I'll get past this!" He she yelled against the doubts. He she was standing over Kasumi now. Kasumi was limp, her clothing burning, the scent of her cooking flesh reaching his her nostrils sporadically against the cool wet concrete smell.

"Let go of her!" Tofu cried, but he she ignored him. The real threat was Cologne, who was only just getting up. And this conversation with a voice coming out of Kasumi that wasn't Kasumi was something of a distraction.

"You will get past this, that is true. How you get past it though, is up in the air. Time is running out. You must make a decision. Are you a human being, plagued with demons, or a conglomeration of demons, loosely tied together by a corporeal form?"

"I don't even know what you're saying!" Tofu was picking up a bucket and pouring something out of it. He seemed to be moving faster than he should. Like a movie going in fast forward. And he she felt confusion, he she didn't know who to attack, or why. Just that there was something trapping him her. Something she he needed to defeat.

"You're on a great precipice now. The ways you can fall are infinite, but only a small fraction of these scenarios involve any semblance of who you are remaining."

"Yeah? And what can I do about it? I can't even keep myself from hurting people. Can't even control my body."

A shimmering light washed over his her vision. It wasn't warm, but cool. Like watching the surface of a pool from under the water. "You have to make a decision. You can't be all of these things you try to be. You have to choose. One species, one sex, one personality, one lover, one school of martial arts. You cannot be an individual if you are so many people."

He she released Kasumi. "Stop screwing with me!" She he decides to try to finish Cologne off, but he she hits a barrier. It glows an actinic blue where she he touches it. It burns, not like heat, or acid, but like…

~~~~~salt~~~~~

Tofu completed the circle of salt just in time. If Kasumi hadn't kept Ranma still, it would have been impossible. He had only a fraction of a second to drop his prepared seal on the circle before Ranma started to move again.

Kasumi was still in the circle. She was burning.

But Tofu could not go inside to stifle the flames. He couldn't disrupt the barrier now. He had to act quickly.

He ran to the koi pond. He held his hand over the water. A blue imprint of his hand appeared like a shadow on the surface. Concentrating, Tofu shifted the water through multidimensional space. An arc of water rose out of the pond. Every second he kept this arc of water aloft it would drain his energy. It took all his concentration, but he moved the water above around the ring of salt. Tofu took a breath through clenched teeth. Ripples appeared on the surface of the ring of water. The ripples grew smaller as the water vibrated at higher and higher frequencies. Dust fell from the water, all the impurities, physical and spiritual shaken out of the liquid. Tofu took three quick gasping breaths. This last bit had to be quick, it had to precise. He had to direct all of the water toward Ranma at once. Ranma, who was slamming herself against the barrier, screaming.

The water fell ten centimeters before Tofu regained his concentration. He had to aim it at Ranma, but once it fell it would splash everywhere, including the salt barrier. So if it didn't work, Ranma would be loose. But Kasumi was still burning.

Kasumi…

Tofu nearly lost it. His literal soul mate, the love he had tried to deny for so long, part of himself yet something so wonderfully gloriously different... she was dying! Tofu caught the water before it could slip out of his control. It was nearly eye level to Ranma now. Grimacing, he made his move. The water fell toward Ranma and splashed all over her deformed body. A hissing cloud of steam rose were the water touched her, but the barrier was down, and on Ranma's next lunge, she broke through.

She seemed to be dissolving, melting, even so she found Tofu, grabbed him by his shirt with a metallic talon of a hand, and lifted him into the air.

Tofu had no attack prepared, certainly nothing that would prevent his death if Ranma wished it. Thankfully, Ranma collapsed, releasing Tofu before anything else could happen.

~~~~~too late~~~~~

"Ranko!" Nabiki cried. She had just seen something with Ranko's face collapse in her backyard

"Go to her." Hoko advised. "I'll find a place to park and come back."

Nabiki dismounted and ran to Ranko, her body protesting each movement. Her vision darkened and she grew dizzy and nauseated, but she kept staggering to Ranko's body until she reached her. Tofu was just getting up when Nabiki got there. "Is she alright?"

"I don't know." Tofu said impatiently he ran over to a smoldering body a few meters away.

"Who is that?" Nabiki swallowed.

"Kasumi?" Tofu brushed the singed hair off his beloved's face, and then collapsed. Nabiki thought she might have seen a spark but it was too difficult to see in the dark of night.

Kasumi was hurt too? Nabiki almost went to see her sister, but she stayed by her fiancée instead. Ranko didn't look too good. In fact it was difficult for Nabiki to fathom how bad Ranko was. One of her hands was missing. The other arm seemed to end in a rusted tangle of metal. The same metal protruded out of Ranko's back like some sinister fungus and spread out in long jagged arcs like the legs of a dead spider. Ranko's legs…were very broken. Multiple compound fractures. They were barely recognizable as legs.

Nabiki's anger spiked, but she staunched it. She saw a flash of green around her. She was not going to let things get out of control again. She had to help Ranko. If she wasn't dead .

_First things first,_ Nabiki took a breath, _Make sure your fiancée isn't dead._ A few thousand questions fluttered in the back of her mind. Questions like "Is she still my fiancée?" ,"Why do I still think of her as a girl? " Why am I still in love with her?", and " Does this make me officially a lesbian now? " But the answers to all these questions were rather moot without knowing whether Ranko was okay or not.

Nabiki felt for a pulse. Very weak. Definitely not okay. Nabiki's mind raced. She never studied medicine. A genius she might be, but there are only so many things a person can read in a lifetime, and she cared more about money and negotiations than healing people. "Fuck. Now's not the time for a guilt trip," she admonished herself.

Problem was, there were two people she knew who could definitely help in this situation and neither of them were available. Happosai wasn't anywhere around, and Ranma, by virtue of being the person who was incapacitated, wouldn't be any help either, which was a pity because a magical super healing apple would be really convenient right now. Tofu could probably help too, except he was now passed was also Hoko, but she could only help if someone was dead. And they would need Hiro too if that happened. "Fuck." Nabiki repeated. Nodoka was watching from the engawa, looking worried and useless, except that the sword she always carried was blazing blue and white. Nabiki was glad she was there all the same. It's always good to have someone who can lie to you and tell you everything is okay. Finally, Nabiki spied Cologne hobbling toward the area, holding a duck that was probably Mousse in one arm and looking very beaten up. She fit more under the "crazy medicine woman" banner more than "qualified healer," but this was a big ass storm and Cologne was a port

Nabiki waited for Cologne to reach her before asking, "What can I do?"

"Stay here until he wakes up, if he does. He'll need to see you then.""

"But all the wounds, the broken bones..."

Cologne narrowed her eyes. "The wounds to Ranma's body are the least of his problems. And as far as I'm concerned he deserved every blow. I'm here to make sure he's down, not heal the poor fool."

Nabiki felt a twinge of anger, but was on top of it before it could manifest. "But she'll pull through this, right? "

Cologne thinned her lips. "That boy Tofu performed a purification ritual. An exorcism. If it worked, it means that every demon residing in Ranma's body was eradicated."

"That's good, but I'm guessing there's a problem?"

Cologne nodded. "If the purification ritual wasn't dangerous, we would have used it long ago. Ranma could have cured his curse with a purification ritual right after he came out of Jusenkyo. The problem is that the soul is in many ways a demon that you're born with. It's a little more complicated. Souls usually are very integrated with the body, are linked extensively to the various chakra and so on, but differences are in this case academic. Your demon, that green aura of yours. That's part of who you are; it's part of your soul. Using a purification ritual is like using bleach to wash out a stain. If you aren't careful, you'll ruin the natural dye of the fabric. Furthermore, when I was fighting Ranma his entire being was in flux. He was really just a conglomeration of different demons. All stain and no shirt. There's a good chance that all that's left now is an empty shell."

Nabiki shook her head. "She will survive. We Saotomes pride ourselves on adaptability." Cologne cocked an eyebrow. "Ranma shared his soul with me. I forget sometimes that I'm not him," Nabiki explained. There was no reason to reveal what was in her father's will to the Amazon matriarch just yet, she decided.

Cologne kept her eyes on Nabiki for a moment before turning her gaze toward Ranko again. "There is something more dire about this outcome though, I'm afraid."

"What is it?"

"If Ranma is the originator of the Migration, he should be unstoppable. Purified water shouldn't even be able to touch him from all the demons around him. Instead it did all this damage."

"So…Ranko's not patient zero anymore? Is it me now? Is that it?" Nabiki felt herself flash with anger. She calmed herself, but she had about had it with being fate's bitch.

"No. It couldn't be you either. You're too stable, even now with your demon newly awakened. I don't think Ranma was ever the originator. Our patient zero as you call it, our antichrist, would have to be someone more powerful, more unstable, more moody. Someone who would have started the migration before Ranma. Someone Ranma knows. Someone who could have activated Ranma's shift away from equilibrium."

Nabiki thought about it for a moment, and then with a sinking feeling that didn't play well with her nausea, she knew."I think I have an idea of who it is," she breathed.

Cologne nodded grimly."Do you know where he is?"

Nabiki scowled. "No."

"We'll find out soon enough," Cologne sighed. "We'll just have to watch the news."

~~~~~frisky in frisco~~~~

[8:00 AM San Francisco, U.S.A]

Happosai stayed as far away from the curiously large sections of sexually inverted ki as he could. It was possible, even likely that he might find someone in those areas with Ranma's and Akane's delicious mix of masculine and feminine, but while inverted male ki was similar to feminine ki in some respects, as far as Happosai was concerned it was poison. Homosexual masculine ki was to feminine ki what methyl alcohol was to ethyl alcohol. They smelled similar, but one was pleasant as part of a beverage and the other could kill you.

Making it even more confusing were the people who actually were female but were cursed with a male anatomy. It was like an ice cream cone dropped in the sewer. Happosai would willingly spray everyone of them with Nyannichuan if it would help. But it wouldn't help most of them. Only the martial artists and devout priests, those with a lot of spiritual energy. Because curses were a breed of demon and demons didn't mess with normal people. Too much trouble, not enough benefit.

_Ranma should be almost completely taken over by now, _Happosai mused. There was no way that Ranma was ready. No way that he could reconcile himself with his Jusenkyo curse, his nekoken, the soul of ice, AND all the shades of his enemies , friends and family. And who knew what other demons had found him in the meantime?

No. Ranma was lost to him. Nerima was probably already a pile of dust by now. Another "earthquake" hitting Japan. Happosai wanted no part in that. Not after the last time.

Happosai jumped on top of the almost step like buildings on one of the steep hills of the city, enjoying the ascension, the feeling of going somewhere, of leaving his dark thoughts behind.

A twenty something girl wearing sweats was taking her dog on a morning jog. Happosai laid his sack on the roof and leapt at her chest, causing her dog to bark and her to squeal in surprise. She was wearing a sports bra, but Happosai enjoyed a challenge.

As she tried to grab hold of him to pry him of her, he deftly maneuvered different parts of the garment in and out of existence so that he could get it off of her without losing any of her essence. After only a few seconds, he was victorious and he jumped back to his sack, put his new treasure in with the others and bounded away as the dog barked after him and the girl tried to figure out what happened to her. The girl's ki was a slightly sweet citrus, like a tangerine. She had recently gone through or was going through some kind of break up but she hadn't soured completely, and she was heterosexual without being submissive. A perfect find.

Happosai was lucky in that women tended to be a bit more loose regarding their orientation. It was a more of a continuum for them than a tight either or. So he had a wider range than he would have if he had been into men. Happosai didn't like the overly feminine girls any more than the total lesbians, they were too sweet. Kasumi was almost that bad, but she had a hidden aspect to her that made her otherwise unbearable sweetness almost alluring. Before Soun and Genma had trapped him in that cave, Happosai had even developed a taste for bisexuals. It was like a good strong coffee for him, bitter, yet undeniably pleasant. It was what made Akane almost as delectable a target as Ranma. Akane and Ranma were like tea and crumpets. The perfect combination. But of course that was only if both of them were girls.

If only the Yin Yang Thank You Ma'am incense had worked the way it was supposed to. Having female Ranma for the ki, and male Ranma as a student of the Art would have been perfect. But instead Ranma started another Ijuu, and now things were screwed beyond hope. Typical really.

Happosai tried to shake his head free of his moodiness. He was here to forget all that, damnit!

A few more roof hops and Happosai found a house large enough for his collection and charged with enough feminine energy to sustain him for as long as he wished to stay. A teenaged girl was staying there with her parents. A real powder keg from the taste of her ki. She had higher than normal levels of ki. Not near Ranma or even Akane's level, but maybe closer to Nabiki. And she had a lot of emotional energy, way higher than even Ranma's. Either she was just naturally imbalanced or something was keeping her from letting out her energy in a healthy manner. Either way, this usually meant she was horny. "This ought to be fun," Happosai snickered to himself. Then he jumped into the girl's window.

~~~~~End of Chapter 13~~~~~

Author's Note:

If there is one U.S. City that can compare with Tokyo, Japan for the amount of weird shit that goes on there in fiction, that would be San Francisco. If you read Tim Pratt, Scott Sigler, and/or Christopher Moore you know what I'm talking about. The Buffyverse has L.A. as its nexus of weird, but as far as I know L.A. doesn't have ships buried underneath it or a history of serial killers. I haven't been to San Fran or L.A. so I'm liable to err a bit on details, but then I've never been to Tokyo either. I'm told Godzilla doesn't actually exist. I'll believe that when I don't see it!

This chapter has not been preread or anything. If you see an error and feel like being helpful, let me know and I'll change it.

A few things:

The anime makes reference to a kawarimi no jutsu. It's apparently a common anime/manga trope and not just something in Naruto. Ranma in an episode sees someone appear change places with an object and wonders if it was a kawarimi. From Japanese Classes I also know that kawarimi is used a lot on the phone for when you're given the phone to someone else. I'm mentioning this because someone my take issue with Kuno knowing about it. For Kuno though, Ninja are normal, Panda curses are not.

Some may wonder why in the second chapter Happosai kept mentioning he was bound by honor to say things about the ijuu. There is a good reason, but I'm honor bound not to tell you:-)

Apologies to any who liked the killed off characters. Kasumi and Kodachi are only slightly killed off, so don't worry too much about them. Unless you have a problem with characters acting against canon, in which case I don't know how you've made it this far.

Ranma is not dead. All of Aurora's predictions will come true. This should give you some vague idea about how the rest of the fic will go in case I can't come back to it for some reason.

I haven't gotten through my big reveal yet, so I'm not ready to quit, but I see storm clouds on the horizon and I'm not sure if this old boat of a fic will make it.

Thanks for all your reviews and comments.

It shall continue to be weird.

.


	14. Delusion

**Thyself Known**

A Ranma ½ fanfiction by Zorknot

**The story so far**: The idea of this fanfiction is basically that there were things in the Ranma cannon that we never got to see. These things are scary demons that give people abilities but play with their minds. These hidden demons come out of the woodwork because of a few key differences in the timeline. In this fic, Ranma's mother began visiting the Tendos very soon after he first arrived. This meant more time as Ranko, and more stress on his identity. When Happosai used a different incense on Ranma after the Personality splitter incident, it caused Ranma to develop a sort of multiple personality disorder, called the Ijuu or Migration, that affects martial artists, priests, or others with a large amount of spiritual energy. This is an adjustment in the person's ki that causes the demons inside a person to awaken and assert themselves in new ways. The disorder is called the migration, because it is contagious. Demons are attracted to people going through the Ijuu, feeding on various emotional states like parasites. If a demon gets powerful enough though, it can take over someone's body and fully awaken. This combined with the fact that the Ijuu spreads to different people can lead to catastrophic results. Some might even liken the first to start an Ijuu to an antichrist-like figure, bringing about the end of the world. Up until the last chapter, most of those in the know assumed that Ranma was this figure. But now it seems they've been wrong. The first one to have the ijuu was Happosai, and he is currently is on vacation in San Francisco. In the meantime Ranma and his friends and family are dealing with the aftermath of an awakening of one of Ranma's demons.

~~~~Disclaimer~~~~~

Many of the characters and situations in this work were not created by me but by Takahashi Rumiko who wrote the Ranma ½ manga, and others who worked on the Ranma1/2 anime series. If you enjoy this, please consider purchasing the source material. Jingle berries are not produced by snot, but by frank announcements of elephantine corn. If you have fought this baseball in terror, please pray on the vine and a terminator will resist you.

~~~~~Ch.14: Delusion~~~~~

"What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad."

Morpheus, from the Matrix

~~~~~glowing numbers~~~~~

Akane tried to find a better position on her futon. She wasn't used to futons. Not like Ranma, who slept on them all the time. Ranma could sleep on flat stone and be fine, damn him. He always looked so comfortable… not just sleeping but in every part of his life. While Akane had to work so hard. But maybe it was an act. Maybe he was only pretending it was easy for him. Akane wondered again if she had over reacted that morning when Ranma started to act strangely, if it was maybe her fault what was happening with him. And what was happening with Ranma? Akane had been so busy being angry with him that she hadn't really had time to be curious. And now that she had no way of finding out, now that there was nothing she could do, NOW she was worrying about it.

And Sayuri! How was she going to deal with her? It would have been better if Sayuri hadn't treated fusing with Copycat Ken's blanket like the best thing that had ever happened to her. Akane could empathize somewhat. It would be nice to be someone else for a little while. To have Ranma's skills or Kasumi's beauty. But that was childish. Akane grit her teeth. It was a lot easier to sleep back when she was able to blame everyone else for all her problems.

Akane's eyes found the glow in the dark wind up alarm clock she had brought with her again. Five minutes had passed since she last looked at it. It was one in the morning. She was supposed to wake up in four hours to start training with elder Ku Lon. Akane tightened her fists in frustration. She wanted to scream and beat her pillow until it agreed to give her what she wanted, but Yuka and Sayuri were in the same tatami-floored room with her, sleeping soundly. No sense forcing them to join in her misery.

It had been an hour since they all had gone to bed though. Simply willing herself to sleep was not working. It was time to ply the sleep fairies with gifts of warm milk and honey. Akane sat up, asking herself once more if there was any chance that she would be sleeping soon if she laid back down. All signs pointed to no, though, so she stood up, resplendent in her cat's head pajamas.

Akane frowned. She originally picked them out to wear as a sort of tacit "fuck you" to Ranma, the ailurophobic former aquatransexual martial artist insensitive jerk with a recent case of multiple personality disorder. But she had forgotten that even the nekoken, the one part of Ranma that she had always been able to connect with, had betrayed her, had chosen Shampoo over her, and then later, Nabiki. Akane willed the anger to subside. It hurt though. Even outside of his full on nekoken, Ranma had some traits that were cat-like. His fastidiousness, his reaction to sudden noises, his fierce possessiveness. As irritating as it was sometimes, Akane had to admit she liked it when he called her "his fiancée." But then he'd go right back to insulting her. Everything human about Ranma was an arrogant idiot. The only part of Ranma that Akane ever loved was a fucking cat. And Ranma was afraid of that part of himself.

Akane shook her head. That probably wasn't true. It was her old, stupid anger flaring up. She had to start thinking some non-Ranma thoughts or she was going to go insane. She had broken up with him. Not the other way around. Even if he had fucked her sister on live television, the perverted bastard.

Akane rubbed her temples. She took a breath. _Ranma is not a boy who betrayed me, she's a girl, she's my rival and I will defeat her._ Akane felt herself relax. She smiled. Thinking of Ranma as a girl was amusing, but it also somehow made everything seem less complicated.

She stepped off her futon, the tatami floor giving in slightly to her weight. Akane liked the feeling of the tatami on her bare feet. The floor was better maintained than her dojo back home. Yuka's grandparents were awesome.

The Ryokan was kind of like what in the west was called a bed and breakfast. Yuka's grandparents lived there, and there was an open kitchen. It was kind of like staying over at someone's house, only everything was nicer and there wasn't quite as much furniture. Yuka had shown Akane and Sayuri where everything was in the kitchen, and Akane remembered it all clearly. She got out the milk and poured some into a mug. Then she put it in the microwave for three minutes, remembering to actually turn it on. Then she let it cool a little bit before adding just enough honey, stirring it in with a tea spoon.

Akane smiled. It was one of the things she remembered her mother making for her, and now she could make it for herself. Years before, when she had tried, she had left the metal teaspoon in the mug while the microwave was on. The sparking and subsequent burning smell were unexpected, but what had frustrated Akane more at the time was that her milk was still cold, and that the microwave had inexplicably stopped microwave was never replaced. Kasumi was able to cope just fine without it, and Nabiki was always saying the family was almost broke. Akane had been banned from the kitchen after that up until Ranma came. She had never gotten a chance to learn to cook and shortly after Ranma there was that damnable shiatsu technique and she was unable to learn. Even Nodoka had given up on her, spending all her time with "Ranko."

"There I go again," Akane sighed. "She is my rival," she reminded herself. "I will defeat her." And, just for fun, she added "Obstacles is for killing!" in her best Chinese accent. She took a cautious sip of her hot milk. It was perfect. Things were looking up.

Then something caught Akane's eye, and she looked down.

Sasuke seemed to blip into view like Rockman at the beginning of one of the video games Sayuri had at her apartment. Akane spilt some of her milk in surprise. It fell on the floor, and after she realized it was just Sasuke being his usual ninja self, she set the mug down and retrieved some paper towels from a cupboard to clean up the mess.

"Lady Akane!" The diminuitive ninja yelled as Akane was doing this, "I have terrible news!"

Akane looked at the ninja midget through half-lidded eyes as she wiped the milk up from the floor. "Is Kuno trapped in a well? Is Kodachi's rose garden taking over the mansion?"

Sasuke shook his head. "Mistress Kodachi, Lady Nabiki, and Lord Soun have died! And the pigtailed girl has been possessed and is now threatening Lady Kasumi and others at the Tendo residence!"

It felt like a cold cement slab fell into her stomach. "You're serious? This isn't some kind of sick joke?"

Sasuke nodded.

Akane stood and rushed to the kitchen telephone. She dialed her phone number and waited anxiously as the rings accumulated.

~~~~~awkward~~~~~

Shampoo studied her reflection. Everything seemed to be okay. Her shorter hair actually accentuated her neck nicely. But something was not right.

"What's the problem, Sugar?" Ukyo asked. "It looks like it's just your cursed form that's changed genders and I thought that would be a good thing for you."

"It not that," Shampoo, said. "It something else."

Ukyo threw her hands up. "Well when you figure it out, you can wake me up. I'm getting some sleep."

Shampoo only nodded, smiling a little at Ukyo's exasperation. She had proven to be an indispensible ally. After only a day with the okonomiyaki chef Shampoo trusted her more than any of her Amazon sisters. Of course they knew a great deal about each other from their time as rivals so it wasn't so hard to understand really. He could do worse for a mate.

Shampoo whipped her attention back to her reflection. Where did that thought come from? Ukyo was a woman, and Shampoo wasn't one to …share bamboo with another warrior. The thought disturbed her. Now if she were a man he could imagine kissing Ukyo passionately, laying her on the bed and ripping her clothes off before…

"Shit," Shampoo said.

A translucent ninja seemed to blip into existence at just that moment. "Lady Shampoo!, Lady Ukyo! I have terrible news!"

~~~~~rocks in the back~~~~~

It was a good thing Ryoga had gone through the Bakusai Tenketsu training, otherwise he would have found sleeping here more difficult. As it was, the terrain caused him little discomfort; he was only troubled by the nightmares.

_He confessed his love to Akane, only for her to say "You don't love me! I know who you really love." And there would be Ranma in female form. But instead of that smile, that laugh of hers, she scowled. Ranma morphed into his male form. "How could you, man?" he said. "I thought you were a friend. Instead you're just a fucking pervert."_

"_No!" Ryoga yelled, "It's not like that! I would never-! Who said that we were friends anyway?"_

"_That's right, we never were friends. We were enemies. Now you're too pathetic to be worth fighting. Get away from me, P-chan."_

_Ryoga then found himself changed into his piglet form. Akane materialized again. "Oh P-chan! It's you. I know you are Ryoga, but I don't mind. Just stay a pig forever. If you can stay a pig forever I can love you forever. Of course I can never love you as a human, you're too pathetic for that. But as a pet it works perfectly!"_

Ryoga woke up in a wave of frustration. Tears were in his eyes. He picked up a stone and crumbled it in his hand in an attempt to relieve the tension. What did the scroll that the strange little man had given him say? Sink your dark, heavy emotions, down, down, until you can no longer bare them, then throw them away…

Ryoga stood up. He imagined Akane and Ranma walking away from him. Over and over again in a loop it played. Sometimes Akane and Ranma were together, sometimes apart. Sometimes Ranma was male, other's female. Some times other people who he knew, like Ukyo, Kasumi, Mousse, or Kuno would walk away. He pushed it all down, down. Down into his center until it was all so packed, so dense that he felt it would explode. Then he let it explode out of his hand. "SHI SHI HOUKODAN!" Ryoga yelled. And a hot blast of roiling black and pea green chi flew out, and tore a tree nearly in half.

Inside Ryoga, a new demon was laughing.

Ryoga felt drained, emotionally numb. That was better than he had been feeling. He sat down on the rocky terrain of the quarry he found himself in. Somewhere between Hokkaido and Istanbul he figured. As long as he didn't think about how lost he was, in more ways than one, he might be able to get some sleep.

A small form appeared before him though, before he could lay down.

"Lord Ryoga! Something terrible has happened!"

~~~~~showdown~~~~~

Tatewake faced the heavy set older man with determination. He would defeat this scoundrel and then he would rescue his love from peril. The man was still trying to deceive him, still doing no more than dodge his attacks in a strategy annoyingly similar to that of the foul sorcerer Ranma. Tatewake was just about to attack again when Sasuke appeared. "Lord Kuno! I've informed everyone of the situation with your sister, the Kitsune, and the pigtailed girl. They will be on their way to help soon."

"Thank you, Sasuke, You have performed your duty well. You are dismissed."

Sasuke bowed deeply and then disappeared.

"Now," Tatewake proclaimed to his opponent, "We resume our battle!"

~~~~~call~~~~~

At ring number five, someone answered in a voice that was somehow both bright and tired at the same time. "Hello?"

"Hi,uh, who is this?" The girl on the other end asked.

"Tendo Akane. Who are you?"

"Um, this is Tomo Hoko? I'm a friend of Nabiki's? You know a lot of shit just hit the fan over here. You might want to come over or stay away depending on your preference."

The name was familiar, but Akane could have sworn Nabiki didn't have friends. Business associates, yes, but friends? "You're her friend," Akane repeated deciding to take the information at face value for the moment. "Is she…?"

"Yeah she's here. She's looking after Ranma right now. Or is it Ranko? I haven't been keeping track. Ranko or whoever's in a coma or something outside. So is your older sister and Dr. Tofu."

"So she's alive? I heard…"

"Oh! Yeah she died earlier, but she got better. Your father's still dead though. Shit, that's probably important to you. Um…look do want to talk to Nabiki? Or maybe Mrs. Saotome? There's an elderly Chinese midget woman and a duck named Mousse here too."

"What happened?"

"Don't know really. I came on the scene when everyone was already on the ground. I heard something about Ranko turning into a heavy metal spider queen? And Dr. Tofu had to give her exercise? I haven't been here long enough to figure anything out. I just got finished calling the ambulance, which is the only reason I'm near the phone. Everyone else is outside. If you're coming you probably ought to head to the hospital, because we'll probably all be there by the time you could get here. Hiro-kun, he's a cop and kinda my boyfriend? We haven't gone on a real date yet, and he's an older guy, but we've kissed and stuff so I guess…anyway he's watching over your father and Kuno's sister, until the ambulance comes for them too; so we're all going to the same place for a sad little rendezvous hullabaloo. If you're coming you should bring tea and cakes, make it a party."

Akane didn't like how this girl was making light of her situation. "I think I'd like to talk to my sister now," she said.

"Fuck! That was stupid, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to keep myself from thinking about things too much, cause it's all a little too deep for me right now. I don't mean to…I'll get your sister." Akane heard the sounds of the receiver settling on the kitchen counter. She took a sip of what was left of her milk, now a few degrees cooler as she waited for Nabiki to get on the phone.

"Hello?"

Akane let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding "Nabiki?"

"It's good to hear your voice, little sister. It's been a rough night." Akane shared the sentiment, but now that she knew for sure Nabiki was okay, Akane suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be angry with her. Her emotions couldn't quite catch up with her memory though.

"Is Dad okay? I heard…"

"No." Nabiki said sharply. Then she sighed. "He's dead, Akane. He was trying to save me from Kodachi. She killed him and I killed her. She killed me too, but a necromancer resurrected me."

"A necromancer…? But why couldn't he resurrect Dad?"

"He... I... I don't want to go into that over the phone. Look, you should probably come home, Akane. Too much has happened. And I think I need you here, even though you probably still hate me. You should know that Ranma, Kasumi, and Tofu are all unconscious. They're all outside still. Cologne, Aunt Saotome, Hoko and I are looking after them. We don't know who's going to make it at this point. Also one other thing. Daddy's will said that if he should die, the Saotomes would take care of us. So don't be too hard on Ranma. She's your step sister now."

"She?"

Nabiki took in a breath. "Ranma's kind of stuck as a girl for now. Just as well since her mother is here."

"Serves her right." Akane said.

Nabiki was silent for a long period. "Ranma's in bad shape, Akane," she said finally. "There's a good chance she...She might not get up from this one."

"So you just decided to sign our mother's name away because Ranma found something she couldn't defeat?"

"Our mother's maiden name was Matsuda, Akane. Tendo was our father's name. And it was his wish that our families would be joined. You don't have to change your name if you're against it. But Ranma is family now whether you like it or not."

Akane was silent. She had no idea how to deal with this information. What did this all mean? Her father was dead? Ranma was her sister?

Nabiki spoke again. "Come home, Akane. You can be pissed at me and Ranma later if you like. Right now our family, our ENTIRE family, needs to be together."

Akane swallowed. "You love her, don't you?"

"Yes." Nabiki's voice was a whisper.

"Why?"

"Why?" Nabiki repeated. "I just do. I don't know. It's like...we both have these wounds inside us, and when we're together they don't seem so bad. We're bandages for each other's wounds."

It just wasn't fair. Nabiki wasn't supposed to be coming up with sappy bullshit like that, that was supposed to be Akane's job! Akane was supposed to be the one in love! Akane was the fiancée not Nabiki! Akane winced at her train of thought. The old familiar jealousy. Now was not the time for it. It didn't even make sense, really.

Akane gritted her teeth, forced herself to let it go. "I'll be there as quickly as I can."

"Be safe, though, okay, little sister? I'm really sick of people I love getting hurt."

An image flashed in Akane's mind of Nabiki holding a gun to her head. Akane dismissed it. She might never be able to truly trust her sister, but now was not the time to be suspicious. "I'll be safe, Nabiki. I'll see you soon."

Akane hung up. She looked around, but Sasuke wasn't anywhere to be seen. She took her mug and poured the rest of the milk into the sink. The ryokan seemed maddeningly quiet now. She was still in her cat head pajamas, bare foot, miles away from where the worst thing that ever happened to her was happening. Part of her wished she could stay and forget what Nabiki and Hoko had told her. But she knew she had to leave. The question that she didn't have an answer to was "how?"

~~~~~tossturn~~~~~

Bedridden in her father's apartment in San Francisco, the window over the bed open to let in the morning air, Rena Charles inhaled.

She exhaled.

In with the life sustaining prana of the universe, out with the terrible pain, the swollen joints, the depression. She had spent the past week at her father's apartment. She couldn't sleep and she couldn't stay upright for very long, so her world became a monochrome, never ending haze. The yoga exercises helped, but they weren't enough. Theoretically, she ought to be able to master her pain if she just concentrated hard enough. Mind over matter. It was her body wasn't it? Her brain? Shouldn't she be able to do something about it?

It was really her only recourse anyway. The last time she tried to get pain medications, her doctor had accused her of being an addict. "I need the pills!" she had argued, "They're the only thing that makes me feel normal!" And then she realized that she sounded exactly like an addict. It was hard to tease out the difference between needing pills for her pain and being in withdrawal pains without them. Rena threw out the pills when she got back from the hospital.

She had taken regular yoga classes with her mother before the pain, but she had always dismissed the spiritual mumbo jumbo that came with it. After she threw out her pills, though, she started meditating hard core. Maybe if she believed in the stuff enough, it would work.

It was really bad for a week or so. Rena almost gave up. But the meditation started to work. It was actually spooky how well it worked. Everything would go quiet, her pain would be gone and she'd see this glow all around her body. It was just in her mind, she knew. She had someone else look at her while she was doing it to be sure, and they didn't see anything, but it was spooky all the same.

For a month, Rena felt better than ever. She was able to go to a few modeling jobs without throwing up. The photographers were amazed at how still she could be. They praised her work ethic. And the cameras loved the anguish in her eyes. It was so easy to reinterpret her physical pain for the pain of a broken heart, or unrequited love, or of being unable to live without a Fennimore brand refrigerator.

Eventually, though, the pain knocked her down again. Her father let her stay in his apartment, because he still believed Rena when she said she wasn't just lazy, she wasn't anorexic, and it wasn't just in her head. She was trapped in bed ever since. Meditating only eased it a little bit now. It was all she could do to get up to go to the bathroom. The sun rose in the morning, moved across the ceiling, down the far wall, and then across her bed to escape out the window again. Then some six or seven hours later, the cycle repeated. That was her day yesterday, and the day before and so on, since the pain came back.

So when the small wrinkled man leapt through her window and started rifling through her panty drawer, it was actually a welcome distraction.

She didn't react immediately. Somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, she didn't want to overreact to something that came from her own tortured mind. She watched the man nonetheless. He was very strange. Small like a dwarf, but he didn't seem to be proportioned the same way as a "little person". And he moved with a gracefulness that made it seem almost like all people were that size and that she might be the one who was abnormal. He had big eyes too, as if nature had taken a wrong turn at "cute" and decided at the last minute on "weird and screwed up" instead. Rena found herself intrigued. She actually managed to sit up, curiosity allowing her to withstand the pain for a moment or two.

It wasn't rheumatoid arthritis. The doctors had assured her of that. There was no reason, they told her, why she shouldn't be a normal healthy teenager. They suggested she be referred to a psychologist. The shrinks she saw tried to find reasons why she might be upset, why she might want the attention. But none of it helped. Except perhaps for the hypnosis sessions, but Rena couldn't figure out the difference between that and meditation, aside from the hypnosis sessions costing quite a bit more.

For that matter she couldn't really tell the difference between physical pain and emotional pain either. One melted into the other. She had already lost all her old friends to her ailment. Her parents had gotten a divorce over it. Even her father was more distant from her. It was almost like she wasn't really there anymore. Almost like she was dead.

Maybe she had died. Maybe that was why this strange midget person was rifling through her undergarments. Maybe that happened to everybody who died, weird midget people went through their things, only she had had the impetuousness to still be alive.

"What are you looking for?" The words came out of her without warning. Even she herself had no idea she would suddenly speak. More surprising than that was how clear her words were. Being in pain for so long her voice should convey some sense of the anguish she was experiencing, but it was more or less unaffected.

The strange little man paused. He turned around. "Pantsu," he said, and then he turned back and started taking panties out of the drawer and throwing them in his sack. He was like a small, non-fat, non-bearded Santa Claus.

"Pan Tsu. Is that some kind of strange, Asian philosophy, like Feng Shui or something? Are you trying to clear my spiritual blockages by culling my undergarments?"

The man turned around, looking confused. "Yes," he said after a moment. And then, "Am I sekusuraru harasumentoingu you yet?"

"I have no idea." Rena squinted, trying to make the weird man disappear. But he didn't. He was there, and he was Asian. Was he Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Vietnamese? Rena had seen enough movies to know that you weren't supposed to make assumptions. Then again maybe it didn't matter. The man was going through her panties, maybe she should be upset with him, and maybe she didn't need to worry about appearing racist. "Do you do this often?"

"Do what?"

"I don't know." Rena moved the wrong way and sucked in a quick breathe when her tendons screamed in protest. "Are you an agent of death or something? Do you rifle through peoples clothes before they die?"

"You are not goingu to die."

"That's comforting." Rena wasn't sure if she was being sarcastic or not. Did she want to live? She wasn't about to kill herself, but assuming things were out of her hands, would she prefer death or another half hour of this shit? She wasn't entirely sure.

The man smelled one of the panties and he face held a thoughtful expression."You have a confurikuto. Your masukurino ki has grown. Why?"

"Huh?"

"Your ki sweeto. Butto troubledo."

"My what is what, now?"

"Ki. KI! Supiruturaru energy!"

"Okay, ki is some kind of energy? And mine is screwed up somehow?"

"Screwed up? Rike screwdriver? Orange juice ando vodka?"

Rena sighed. "Something like that. I suppose you could say 'screwed up' is like how you feel after you drink five or ten of those."

The man nodded. "Yesu. Your energy is screwed up. Why?"

"Beats the fuck out of me."

The man smiled. "I can help you."

Rena raised an eyebrow. "Yeah? How?"

He leapt up to the bed in a supernatural display of agility and three fingers of his right hand jabbed into her right breast. She felt violated, she felt used, she felt…no pain.

Rena blinked. She bounded off her bed, the little man hanging of her like a remora off a shark. "How did you do that? This is amazing!"

The man let go. He landed on the ground and bowed. "Happosai. At your serubisu."

"I have no idea what you just said, but thanks!" Rena twirled around. She had never felt so free. Usually just adjusting her weight caused a cacophony of protests from her nerves and tendons. She felt like she was flying! "You can rifle through my panties anytime!"

~~~~~darkness~~~~~

Voices. Heard as if through water: "It isn't working! We need to get Hiro over here."

"Do you think you can get him and come back before her body dies?" Something about this voice soothed Ranma and at the same time eased her out of unconsciousness.

"Um…I could try, but… no. I don't want to be harsh, but your sister's got like a minute to live, if you can even call what she is now alive. I'm fast, but I'm not _that_ fast." This voice was bright, percussive and a little awkward. It was like a woodwind being played like a brass instrument.

"What about Ranma?" The familiar voice again. Ranma drank the sound in like morning coffee.

The voice that responded was a gravely blanket, warm but rough. "The wounds are already cauterized. I've cleaned them and bandaged them. I'm afraid that's all I can do." _Cologne_, Ranma thought. Her next thought was _Hey! I'm alive!"_

"No fancy Chinese herb that will regenerate limbs and repair nerves?"The familiar voice was a cool contralto. But there were definite notes of concern. _Nabiki? Nabiki's here. She's alive and she's here! _ Ranma tried to get up, but she couldn't move. The attempt allowed Ranma to sense the pain that she wasn't yet feeling, like heat behind the door of a burning building.

"Child, you can see her as well as I can. Maybe she was lucky. Maybe she survived the exorcism with her mind intact. But she will not walk again, and will not be able to regrow her hands. Some things can be fixed with magic, other things need miracles. Unless you know any gods or goddesses that owe you a favor, the best we can hope for is Ranma confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, helpless. In Nyuchezu, we would have killed her by now out of mercy."

"No." Nabiki's voice was even, but resolute. "This is Saotome Ranma. Ranma doesn't give up. Neither will I. If she wakes up and tells me she wants to die, then I will kill her myself, but not before."

"Ranma is in the habit of defying the odds," the Amazon matriarch agreed. "I wish there was more I could do for your family."

"If you hadn't been here, I would have thought my sister was dying, and Ranma might have died on top of that. I owe you, elder Ku Lon. A lot. I've always been able to pay my debts, but I don't know if I'll ever be able to pay this one."

"Um, Nabiki?" Hoko interjected, "Your sister is dead. She just died. I mean like a second ago."

"She's not dead, Hoko. It's just her body. Cologne explained it to me. She merged somehow with Dr. Tofu. Besides, I can see his aura and hers both inside his body. I don't really understand it, but at this point I've given up trying to really understand what's going on."

"Fine. Just so we're clear, I can stop keeping her body alive with my magic pube feathers?" Hoko was Nabiki's friend, Ranma remembered. She didn't seem much like Nabiki had described her though. For one thing, apparently she had magic pubes. Since Ranma was just regaining consciousness after being turned into a metal spider woman by a geriatric serial killer demon with a molten metal fetish, she couldn't really drum up any amazement for the skill.

"Yes," Nabiki sighed. "Their auras are just too intertwined."

"Nabiki, this is your sister, are you sure you want to let her body die like this?" A more mature voice said these words… Nodoka. "Hoko, do you have to be present for your resurrection method to work? Could I use the down while you get the police officer?"

"I guess you could use my down if I'm not there, but each time I use it, she stays breathing for less time, and I'm kinda starting to run out?"

"Can you give Aunt Saotome enough to keep Kasumi's body alive long enough for you to bring Hiro here?" Nabiki asked.

"I don't know; it lasted ten minutes the first time, then the second time about seven or eight minutes and this last time it was about five."

"Crap, so maybe two more times if it works linearly."

Hoko let out a frustrated "mmh!" "I'm going to need fifteen minutes to twenty minutes to get to Hiro and come back, depending on traffic. I'll probably be half an hour at least, because he'll probably be dealing with paramedics by then."

"It might not be linear though," Nabiki said. "The time the down works might be decreasing by exponential decay."

"Wouldn't that mean it would go away faster?" Hoko asked.

"Well, yes, initially. It's like interest adjusted continually, only backwards, with a negative exponent for e. Like you're going back in time to find the initial investment. But no matter how far back in time you go, the initial investment can't be zero, because then there could be no interest. If this is like that then the down would continue to work, only every…two times you use it, it would work half as long. If we figure Kawagami-chan needs about a minute to do his thing that leaves us… four more times before the down becomes effectively useless. Hoko, how long was I dead before you revived me?"

"It couldn't have been more than five or ten minutes."

"Well was it five minutes or ten? Because if it was five minutes, you've got twenty minutes to get Hiro back here, and if it was ten, you've got forty."

"We don't know how long someone can be dead before it stops working," Hoko said, following what Nabiki was saying.

"Right, and now's not the time for experiments."

"Okay, I have about ten of the little feathers left. I don't think I can use the hairs. If I leave five with you I should have enough time to get back with Hiro if I hurry."

"It's a plan," Nabiki said, her tone suggesting that it might not be a good plan, but it would have to do.

Ranma could hear Hoko's feet on the dojo floor as she rushed out, and later, farther off, the sound of a motorcycle engine starting.

After some time passed Cologne spoke. "Nabiki?"

"Yes, Cologne?"

"You wanted to know how you might repay your debt? There is a way. Your younger sister, Akane, has elected to become an Amazon. She will have to travel to China with me for it to be official, but I have welcomed her into the tribe. I would welcome you as well."

Nabiki chuckled. "And through me and Akane, you hope to get Ranma, is that right?"

"Sadly, no. Not anymore. I want to have your faith, but there has been no one in my lifetime who has survived an exorcism of the type Tofu performed. I am a patient woman. In time I was hoping to snare all the talent I could out of this place. The situation has forced my hand. I would have preferred to take on Akane when she was more mature, and now my plans for the Kuonji girl will have to be rushed. Even so, I've been too focused on Ranma, it seems. I just witnessed a girl of only eighteen find a solution to a problem that would have balked a matriarch. You would be an invaluable asset. "

"I'll think about your offer," Nabiki said "I can't make a decision right now with everything that's going on. Are you going to go after Happosai?"

There was a slight pause then Cologne said, "I'm leaving tomorrow. "

"If you have any problems with money or the government, call me. I might be able to help."

"I'll remember that, child. Get some rest while you can. You've had a long ordeal, and you take on more burdens than you should."

"I'll try, Elder," Nabiki said in a way that suggested she had little hope of succeeding in that regard.

There was a long pause before Cologne spoke again. "Bie Liao, Saotome Nabiki."

"Bie liao, elder Ku Lon."

Ranma was starting to feel the pain. She had gone through so much of it, but pain never really stopped being painful. She was feeling other things though too. She was laying on the grass outside, wrapped in bandages. Nabiki's warm, delicate hand was on her fore arm. It was the closest she could get to grasping Ranma's hand.

"Don't you dare give up," Nabiki warned, "If you ever tell me to kill you, I'll _kill_ you!"

_I'm not going to give up_, Ranma wanted to say. The shimmering lady that appeared to her, the one that called herself Aurora, had told her that she would survive, and that she would be a man again, as long as she knew who she was. The exorcism tore Aurora apart, but she had smiled serenely through it all, protecting Ranma from the worst of it, allowing Ranma to gather up the most important parts of herself, and become someone whole. So much of her was gone now. It felt like twenty loved ones had been struggling on life support and someone pulled the plug. Part of Ranma felt terrible; part of her felt relieved, but it was only one person feeling both emotions.

The pain was getting more insistent now. Some of it was in Ranma's throat from the screaming she had done. It was starting to feel a little like someone was sawing her limbs off with a rusty blade, but Ranma decided she was through screaming. _I'm going to get through this, _she told herself_. All I have to do is figure out how to cure my severed spinal cord, grow a new pair of hands and get a sex change. _

_Yeah, piece of cake._

~~~~~mansion~~~~~

Kodachi's body felt like shit and it was also very distractingly female, the leotard making it more obvious than usual. Hiro didn't like that there was a "usual" either. Hiro sat up, gritting Kodachi's teeth. There was also something else, something agonizing in the background. It was like, very far away some one was screaming and even though there was no way to hear it, Hiro could feel it. Only it wasn't as real as a feeling. It was like the anticipation of a feeling.

Hiro made Kodachi's throat swallow against the dryness. "Kodachi?" He whispered. Not to anyone in the room, but to whomever it was that he could almost feel screaming inside.

####

"Yes?" Kodachi looked up at him. She wore a St. Hebereke school uniform instead of her leotard. Hiro recognized the school colors.

Wait a minute…

"There's something wrong here." Hiro was back in his own body.

"Yes, that poor girl and her family. We need to help her somehow, don't we?"

"That's not it! There's no 'we' anyway I don't even know you!" Hiro rubbed his eyes. This was a hallucination. It had to be. Still, he could feel the material of his police uniform on his body. He reached, and there was the comforting weight of his holstered pistol. He could see everything in the palace. Everything held his gaze. Nothing squirmed out the way of his scrutiny as things do in dreams. Except he still felt, or sensed, or intuited the screaming. Getting louder now.

"You saved my life." Kodachi said, walking up to him. "I owe you a debt. I want to help you."She was very cute. Hiro swallowed. It felt good to have a girl thank him like that. It wouldn't have been quite the same if it was a boy he had helped, but the feeling he felt wasn't really sexual either. It was just nice. The fact that the girl was attractive just made it a bit nicer, that was all. It was all he ever wanted. To be able to help people, to save them.

Hiro clenched his eyes shut. This was an illusion. He KNEW that, and still, it almost got him. He'd love for Kodachi to wake up and be grateful. For the little girl he saw to some how be helped. For him to not have to use his power to do it, to not have spend anytime in a body that wasn't his. He knew that wasn't the way things worked though. He could see the allure, but it wasn't real. It was Kodachi's demon. Denial. Like Saotome had said, she had a demon, only it didn't leave when Kodachi died, it stayed in her body.

And that screaming…

Suddenly it came into focus, and it wasn't far away at all, but right there.

Kodachi was screaming.

Kodachi hadn't wanted to die, that was not why he hadn't seen her ghost earlier. The truth was that her ghost hadn't been visible because her demon trapped her inside her body, even as she died.

And now Hiro was inside with her.

~~~~~wits~~~~~

Genma Saotome dodged the Kuno boy's latest attack, but only barely. The kid seemed to be getting faster while he got slower. He had to convince the boy of reality. First he tried the bald truth. "Listen, boy. The fact is that I got cursed in a spring in China called Jusenkyo along with my son. I turn into a Panda while he turns into a girl. This fantasy you've concocted where Akane and my son's girl side are goddesses and my son's male side is somehow controlling them, just does not hold. I am a man that turns into a panda. Not a ninja who knows how to change places with a panda."

Kuno scoffed. "Hearken onto thine own words, you fatuous fart! Know thee not of Occam's razor which dictates that the simplest solution is oft the one with the most veracity? You expect me to believe that some cryptic magic water has the ability to transmogrify a man? One can only begin to think of the plethora of nature's laws that would have to be bent, nay broken! In order for such a thing to be true. Whereas I suggest a mere trick of prestidigitation involving a trained panda and a skilled hand in the silent art."

"All you have to do is splash me or Ranma with water to see if it's true! It's a simple, testable theory!"

"Your perceived simplicity belies hidden complexities. Unless the laws of physics are fundamentally flawed you cannot have actually been a panda. And if the laws are flawed then new explanations are needed for the whole of the known universe! It is far more likely that you have simply created a gripping illusion that has fooled many. I will not be fooled, though for my troubles I may appear foolish." Kuno pulled out a bokken. "Now let us tarry no further. Either we duel or we get back on the conveyance and travel thither. I should warn you that if it comes to battle I will be the victor, for I have youth and the purity of my art to sustain me."

Genma wondered if he might do better to just get on the bike with the boy. That would shut him up for a little while. The boy was sharper than he thought. He had taken such care to train that panda. It was a super secret technique and yet the boy saw right through it.

~~~~~senility~~~~~

Cologne paused on her way back to the Nekohanten. She blinked and then kept going, carrying Mousse's duck under her arm. Why was she carrying Mousse's duck? She'd have to give Mousse a scolding about using the duck exchange technique he had learned at Jusenkyo in the heat of battle. It was a real distraction. She wondered where the blind boy had run off to.

She chuckled. It was really odd of Shampoo wasn't it, to change places with a cat so often when she know of Ranma's phobia? She remembered it making sense at the time, but now for the life of her she couldn't understand it. _Oh well_, she thought, _probably just getting nutty in my old age_. Either that or reality was shifting around her. Not really much she could do about it either way.

~~~~~~denial~~~~~

How do you beat denial?

Hiro was trying to figure it out. He tried truth. "I am Hiro Kawagami. I am a police officer."

~_But you're not really a police officer, are you? You're not even Hiro Kawagami right now. Right now you're just part of Kodachi Kuno's brain_.~ The voice was thick, dark, and insidious, like tar bubbling up through cracks in asphalt.

"No, that's not true! I'm …" Fuck. Denial.

Hiro felt himself further enmeshed in the mess of Kodachi's mind. But it really wasn't true that he was just part of Kodachi's mind, right?

Unless maybe he was. But then so what? Regardless, he wanted to get out and back to his old body. He tried this tactic. "I don't want to be here. I want to be back in my body."

~_No you don't. If you do that, then Kodachi here rots, or I continue to consume her_.~

Shit. "That's right. I want you to stop bothering that girl."

~_No, you don't_.~ and the voice seemed to be right next to Hiro's ear, ~_Because if I stop with the girl, I start with you.~_

"I AM Hiro. I am a man." Hiro tried making broad assertions.

_~I suppose you're going to explain to me how that works when you're in a woman's body?~_

"I am a necromancer I was able to exchange bodies with…"

There was a terrible laugh_. ~You realize how ridiculous that sounds? Face it, you're nothing more than a personality formed by a insane person's fevered mind. You don't exist except as part of Kodachi Kuno.~_

Hiro resisted the urge to simply refute what the voice said. That would just be denial. He tried to make his case. "I have memories that Kodachi could never have had. The crime scenes I've seen, the death of my father."

_~I suppose no one could have imagined those, huh? Like similar stories haven't appeared in hundreds of cop dramas and soap hack writer is probably concocting something like that as we speak!~_

"Not like my memories. They are vivid. They are graphic. I can still see my father, feel his chest as the life seeped out of him."

_~Ah, but suppose it was not your father, but Kodachi's father who died. Or rather her mother. Maybe she was so distraught over the death of her mother, and maybe she always wished her father had died instead. Maybe she secretly fantasized about murdering people, but at the same time she felt guilty about it, so she created a cleaner personality that would dissect the crime scenes that she created in her mind?~_

"Right. And maybe aliens are trying to communicate to earthlings through my bowel movements," Hiro quipped.

###

He was back in reality. Or at least it seemed more realistic than the place he was before. Hiro blinked. Sarcasm. Why hadn't he thought of that sooner?

He heard the ambulance sirens outside. He had to move quickly. Using his power he called the girl who was in his body back to him and switched back. Now the girl, Kodachi, and her demon were in the same body. Not a good situation for them, but maybe there was some coma patient he could put one of them in later. Coma patients would be in the hospital and that's where the paramedics were going. So he would go with the paramedics and fix the problem at the hospital.

Good enough for government work.

Unforturnately Hiro's girlfriend rushed in at that moment to throw a monkey wrench into his plans.

"They need your voodoo at the Tendo res. Let the EMTs take the dead girl and I'll take you over there. We don't have much time."

Hiro nodded and ran after Hoko, hoping that the night would end eventually.

~~~~~the real world~~~~~

Genma was panting from the exertion of trying to stay away from the boy's attacks. The kid seemed to be getting taller and faster even as he looked at him. This was bad. Really really bad. "Stop being foolish, boy!" Genma growled, "Some part of you has to know that you're wrong. You can't tell me Chinese curses are illogical when half the time you proclaim your love to goddesses!"

Kuno hit Genma with the butt of his bokken, knocking the older man back. "I am in awe of Akane Tendo and the pigtailed girl. I say they are indeed goddesses, for they possess powers I do not understand, just as your wicked filth of a son is a sorcerer, and I call the one who would pretend to be Nabiki Tendo a kitsune for she bears all the historical markings of one. My beliefs are based in documented stories, not in some wild delusion about magic water. Akane is the very incarnation of Diana, she of the hunt. And the pigtailed girl is Hestia, fiery goddess of the hearth. I love them both and I will not redact my feelings because of the words of some low-born trickster!"

~~~~~foxfire~~~~~

Hoko started to slow when she saw the corner of the Tendo's block. It was more difficult to brake with someone behind her, but she didn't mind. She liked the feel of Hiro's warm, solid chest behind her. She also liked his faint aftershave smell.

But she had a life to save. She guided the motorcycle through the gate of the Tendo residence and kickstanded it beside the path next to the fallen tree. Nabiki was outside wearing a pale green kimono. She met Hoko and Hiro on the path. "You are giving me aid yet again, Officer Kawagami. This one regrets being so far in your debt." Nabiki bowed to Hiro.

"Nabiki?" Hoko said.

"Yes?"

"Your ears are showing," Hoko pointed to the rich brown fox's ears coming out of Nabiki's head.

"Oh." Nabiki frowned. She glowed green for a second and her ears looked human again. She was also wearing her favorite blouse with the slit shoulders and a pair of slacks.

"You really don't need to bother, Nabiki. Hiro and I both know you're a kitsune since Kuno outed you. Besides I'm a phoenix. You're not going to get any mythism from me."

"Mythism?"

"Yeah, like racism only for mythological creatures."

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Kawagami-chan, if you will follow me? Kasumi and Tofu are in the dojo lying next to where the goddess Hestia slumbers."

Hiro nodded and followed Nabiki inside.

"Hey, Nabiki? Could Hestia help your sister?"

Nabiki shook her head. "Hestia has to heal herself from her ordeal with the demon. Besides while she may be able to heal Kasumi, she couldn't separate her from Tofu. I really don't think Kawagami can help either, but we have to try."

~~~~~the hunt~~~~~

Akane, incarnation of the goddess Diana, was just about to wake up Yoko's uncle so she could ask for him to drive her to her house. She stopped before waking him though, slapping her forehead. That enchantment of Shampoos was insidious! Why was she trying to get a car? She was a goddess! She could be anywhere she wanted. Anywhere nature housed its creatures. How could she have forgotten something so important?

Diana supposed it was just as well, if too many mortals knew of her nature it would be troublesome. That Kuno boy was a case in point. Still, at the moment she was the only one up. She walked outside, the night air cool against her glowing skin. Letting the air fill her, she changed herself into a snow white owl and flew unerringly toward her home.

~~~~~twain~~~~~

Nabiki led Kawagami to where Kasumi and Tofu lay.

"So what's the problem here?" Hiro asked.

"Kasumi and Tofu's souls have become intertwined."

"How did that happen?"

Nabiki shrugged. "I guess they were soul mates. In a more literal sense then usual."

Hiro took off his sunglasses and his eyes glowed a pale blue. Nabiki felt an electric tingle on her skin. "All I see is one soul. Maybe a little ragged around the edges."

"No it's definitely two souls, just intertwined," Nabiki said. "See how one has a slightly paler hue and it's a little smoother?"

"Uh…no, I don't. I don't see colors. Souls are just kind of white clouds to me if they're in a living body."

Nabiki grimaced. "Can you do anything with them? Can you take the souls out of the body?"

"One way to find out," Hiro said and reached out his hand. He furrowed his brow in concentration.

Nothing happened.

Hiro let out a breath through his nostrils in apparent resignation. "I have no idea how to help here. If they were dead, maybe I could do something, but they're both 's like I don't have jurisdiction."

"Maybe we could kill them?" Hoko thought out loud. "Then maybe Hiro-kun could do something. We still have a little time."

Nabiki blinked, that wasn't quite as crazy an idea as it sounded. But she still didn't like it. "I don't know. Right now both of them are alive and they're becoming more and more like one person. At this point… well what would you think would happen if you tore a soul apart?"

Hiro frowned and held his chin as he put his sunglasses back on. "Well I guess either the person would be kind of listless and out of touch or possibly they'd go insane. I don't know."

Nabiki nodded slowly. Hiro had basically just described Kasumi and Tofu. They had been getting better, but that was because…Nabiki closed her eyes. It was because they were closer together. "If I could ask their permission, and they said yes, I'd say go for it. But from what I can see… I think this has to happen."

Hiro nodded. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help. I met Kasumi-san and Dr. Tofu only briefly, but they both seemed like nice people."

"Like male and female versions of each other," Hoko agreed.

Nabiki held up a hand. "They aren't dead, or Officer Kawagami would be able to help. So don't talk like they're dead. I'm going to find a way to fix this. But for now I have to let it run its course."

The sirens of the ambulances signaled the end of the discussion. The paramedics rushed into the yard like dream fog. They put Tofu and Kasumi's bodies on stretchers and took them away. Hestia looked as thought she was almost finished curing her wounds, but the paramedics put her on a stretcher as well and Nabiki was loathe to leave her side. She followed the stretcher into the ambulance despite the uneasy feely she felt surrounded by so much metal and electronics. Feeling cramped as well, she turned into her fox form and curled next to her goddess.

~~~~~delusion~~~~~

Ranma knew that she wasn't a goddess. But it would be okay to pretend. She would pretend, because if she believed in the fantasy, she would be able to heal her wounds.

She rode the wave of delusion that hit her and worked to make the right parts of it reality. It was tempting to go too far. She wanted so much to protect her family, to ensure that she still had one. Becoming a goddess of hearth and home, with the ability to bring families together, had a definite allure. But she knew that it wasn't her. It wasn't real, and if she depended on something that rested on the opinions of a fool, then she would put herself in danger. The powers she allowed herself to gain were healing her, resetting her bones, regrowing her hands, and with the powers she could also see where they came from. She could see Nabiki charmed into being a kitsune, and Akane flying high over the city. She could see her father fighting Kuno, trying to convince him of reality. And she worried, because if her father killed Kuno, or if he somehow managed to change the fool's mind at the wrong moment...

Because her powers came from the delusion itself, Ranma could not be sure how much reality would be able to bend, or how much would remain changed once Kuno no longer influenced it. She hoped she could heal herself and stay that way, but this was only a hope. Would Nabiki be stuck in the body of a fox? Would Akane be an owl forever? Or worse, would Akane revert back to her regular body while still high in the air? If she accepted the delusion fully, she felt she could become a bird herself and intercept Akane to get her to land or at least stay closer to the ground. If Ranma accepted the delusion, she could heal faster and be able to help her father. But if she accepted the delusion, she would no longer realize there was a problem. There was also a possibility that if she believed in the delusion too much, she would become one with it, and when the delusion was removed she would disappear completely.

"I am Ranma Saotome," she whispered to herself, her whisper sounding like the crackling of burning wood. "I'm not some frilly, girly-ass goddess. I was a man once, and I will be a man again. I'm just going along with the goddess thing long enough to get back on my feet." She felt better for having said that. But the temptation was still there. Power to protect the ones she loved. Power to keep them to her. Power to make sure they never left her. Ranma shook her head slightly. Nabiki hadn't left her. Kasumi and Tofu had fought for her. Genma was fighting for her. Nodoka had adopted her. She was not abandoned. She was still loved.

She hadn't worried about being abandoned for years and there was no reason to worry about it now. But Airanman had dredged the fear up like nugget of ore out of the earth and now it lay on the surface, unprotected. A nightmare from her childhood, when Genma would sometimes leave her with a sensei and not be seen for days. He always came back, but there was the fear all the same. It was back, and she could not deny it. She wanted to be sure she would not be left alone, but there was no absolute assurance. As Hestia, Ranma could have that assurance.

It wasn't real, though. Ranma forced herself to focus on that. It wasn't real. Even though she wished it was.

~~~~~guidinglight~~~~~

A thirty-something woman sat on a plush sofa surrounded by cats. She was attractive, of African descent, with a lithe, athletic figure. Not the typical cat lady stereotype, though she was most definitely a cat lady, down to her obsession with soap operas. Also, whenever she was alone, she had a cat's head.

She went by Sheryl Bast, and she had been pretending to be mortal for the last thousand years or so. She sat on her couch eating out of a tin of cat food, luxuriating in the weekend boredom. She worked as a marriage counselor to pay the bills. Because it was kind of suspicious to be a marriage counselor without being married, she often went out publicly with one of her cats, magicked into looking like a man. She had a picture of a fake wedding between her and Fluffles on her desk in her office.

One might ask why a goddess of once epic power would be watching soaps and working with the petty problems of mortals. Then again one may as well ask, why not? Besides it was pretty much what Bast had done when she was in Egypt.

Many people weren't even aware that she and the goddess Hestia were essentially the same person. If Bastet had relied on the Greeks and Romans, she would have faded out ages ago. Sure there were the university classes on mythology, but those were all taught as fictions. There was no belief there, no faith. Bast, though, was still worshiped, even if her worshipers didn't realize it themselves. Every cat that was loved as a family member, gave a little love to Bastet, who was the first to give them food and teach them to coexist with humans. It was true that, as Hestia, she had a cozy relationship with the spirit of Christmas. She helped with a lot of the better Christmas movies, the ones where the family sits around a fireplace, opening gifts together. But if it weren't for the power she got from people's reverence of cats, she wouldn't have had enough influence, and Christmas would have just been about the birth of some human with divine ancestry, as if there weren't hundreds of those, and there would have been no mention of family. As it was, keeping families together was a losing battle, and Bast, having long ago lost her own family, was ill equipped to truly solve the problem.

It was during a commercial break when it happened. A fast food commercial was just getting started, when suddenly Bast felt exhausted and energized at the same time. As if she had been doing a good run in the park for about an hour. She liked running. When she ran, she felt like she was communing with reality. The exertion helping to keep her grounded, keep her stable. She wouldn't mind dying a mortal death if it came to that, but she didn't want to simply fade away like her husband had.

This feeling was something different, though. Something she hadn't felt in a thousand years. All of the cats in the room turned toward Bast. Several of them yowled in concern.

"It's okay, dear ones," Bast assured them. "It's just someone asking for my help."

~~~~~bluethunder~~~~~

Genma was trying to remember why he was fighting this boy. It was something important. About his son. Or was that his daughter? There were two goddesses and he felt like he was the father of one of them, but that was impossible. He was just a low-born ninja.

"Your name doesn't even make sense!" Genma tried desperately "Thunder is a sound, it has no color!"

"Ignorant old man, know you not even of figures of speech? I do not claim to be literally blue thunder. I merely suggest I have the qualities of thunder and do have a predilection for the color blue."

A snow white owl then landed in the middle of the street, whereupon it transformed in a glowing cloud of feathers into the goddess Akane, clothed in a shimmering tunic, her bow and arrow drawn and pointed at Kuno. "Why do you attack this man, young samurai?"

"Goddess! You show your true form to me at last!"

"I have also asked you a question. Are you ignoring the question of a goddess?"

"No my lady." Kuno bowed. "It is just that this man deals in deceit and was saying many slanderous things about you and the pig tailed goddess."

"What have you to say to these allegations, knave?" Akane asked Genma.

Genma's mouth was hanging open. In winged words he said, "Do not think ill of me, great one! My mind seems muddled as of late. I was convinced that you and Ranma were mere mortals. I don't know how I came to this. My whole life now seems awry."

Akane put down her bow and arrow, and approached the middle aged man. "I can look inside your mind and see the confusions that roil within. Let me see what clarity I can give." Akane laid her hand on Genma forehead.

Genma blinked. Akane looked normal now. Not a goddess, just a teenaged girl. But she still wore a tunic and carried a bow and arrow, and she had a slightly manic look in her eye. Where had she come from? He had become wrapped up in Kuno's delusions so that explained how Akane could seem to have been an owl, but how did she get here?

Akane thinned her eyes. "I see something I was not meant to see. I see lies within lies. An infinite recursion. Kuno!" She turned to Tatewake, glaring at the boy fiercely. Without her aura of holiness the gesture seemed a little silly. Still the boy reacted as if Akane were still exuding power. "This is your doing!"

"Goddess, I don't see how…"

"You doubt my word?"

"No, but…"

"You are trapped in your own lie, braggart. It is only because you have made me a goddess that I've been able to see that I am not a goddess. And it is only because you believe yourself to be infallible that you shall fail. While I retain my power I shall remove the cloud that mires your thoughts . Finally you shall know what is true." Akane slapped the palms of her hands against Kuno's temples. A black, inky smoke roiled out of his ears, screaming. It changed swiftly into a large black python, wrapping itself around Akane before she could react.

"You've got room for me in there, girl. I see it. So tasty." The serpent flicked a smoky black tongue at Akane's face.

Genma didn't have any time to loose. "COW PATTY!" he yelled and as the demon turned its head to look at him quizzically he released a carefully aimed vacuum blade at the creature's neck. The serpent dissipated into nothing as soon as its head was severed.

"Cow patty?" Akane asked dusting herself off.

Genma shrugged. "It was the first thing I thought of."

"I suppose it would have been expecting 'bullshit.'"

Genma nodded sagely.

Tatewake was getting up. "You're not a goddess," he said to Akane.

"No, I'm not," Akane admitted.

"And…Ranma?"

"Is, or at least was, a boy who turned into a girl."

Tatewake nodded. "I thought…I thought I had beaten it. I thought that everything you were saying was the demon trying to fool me. I was so sure."

"Well, you know what they say about denial…" Akane started.

Genma raised a hand to stop her. "Akane, don't."

Akane closed her eyes and shook her head. "I know, it's not at all appropriate. I just couldn't get it out of my head all of a sudden."

"I think we all know what you were going to say, so we really don't need to hear it," Tatewake grumbled, holding the heel of his hand tightly to his brow.

"We've got to get going, Ranma's in trouble," Genma said.

Akane nodded gravely. "It's not just Ranma, Kasumi and Tofu as well. I guess you know about my father?"

Genma nodded.

"He's really dead? I just can't believe it."

"Crap!" Kuno spat out.

"What is it?" Akane asked.

"Now _I_ want to say it!"

~~~~~a river in egypt~~~~~

Whenever Bast traveled, she always liked to make a quick stop at the great pyramids. It was night time in Egypt now, but this suited her fine. She found she could imagine the old splendor better at night. Remember when the pyramids had been lustrous white, with luminous gold leaf along every edge. She could remember when the Sphinx was whole, and the eeriness one felt when passing under its implacable gaze.

She wondered how many of the others, like her, were still around, masquerading as mortals. It was something of a change from the old days, when the mortals would prance around, declaring themselves gods. Then again it wasn't like the mortals had ever stopped doing that. "What do you say, Fluffles, do you think we should visit the tomb for old time's sake?"

"Always agree," Fluffles said in his rich baritone.

Bast smiled. Fluffles was her best husband yet.

~~~~~foxy lady~~~~~

"Thank goodness," Ranma said collapsing into a semblance of a sitting position beside Nabiki.

Nabiki blinked slowly. "I was…"

"A fox. A kitsune. It was Kuno's demon. It made everyone believe in his crap for a while."

"You're okay! You're walking!" Nabiki's aura flashed green before she got control of it again. Then she noticed something. "You look…different."

"I'm very weak still, Nabiki. I just had to make sure you changed back before anything permanent happened." Ranma grimaced. "This is my normal form now. No curses, no ki control. I was able to get most of my muscle tone back, but I'm going still going to have to start training from scratch."

"You don't seem like Ranko."

"I'm not. I'm Ranma. Ranko died. Sorta. A lot of me died. I'm just what's left."

Nabiki tried to read Ranma's aura, but it was very weak. Even weaker than Hoko's. Nabiki would have thought Ranma was deathly ill from her aura, but she seemed more or less okay. "What about…?"

Ranma shook her head. "You were too much a part of me. I didn't lose us. Except I miss being connected like we were."

Nabiki nodded. "So while everyone thought you were a goddess you were able to heal yourself. And you're still healed after the mass hysteria is over?"

"Seem to be."

Nabiki took one of Ranma's hands to examine them. They were very pale compared to the rest of her body, but warm. It almost looked like she was wearing gloves, but they were too alive. Nabiki released the hand and looked Ranma over again. There was something else about her that was off, but Nabiki could figure out what it was.

"I was a goddess so I took some liberties," Ranma said as if reading Nabiki's mind, "I'm not quite as tall as I was as a guy, but I'll have better reach now." Ranma extended out her legs. They looked startlingly thin, but they were longer. Not out of proportion, but it made Ranma seem gangly, where before she seemed compact.

"Hmm…so where are we on the whole boy versus girl thing?"

Ranma sighed. "I'm a girl right now, Nabiki. I don't want to be, but I am. I'm heading to Jusenkyo as soon as I can, but until then I just have to live with it."

Nabiki touched Ranma's cheek with her hand "You don't have to be a boy for me, Ranma. You know that."

Ranma covered Nabiki's hand with her new one, soft delicate, and warm. "If you ask me not to go I won't. You can be the husband and I can be the wife. Or we could just live together as sisters. I don't care. You are more important to me than my honor."

"You don't have to be a man to have honor, either, Ranma."

Ranma shook her head pulling Nabiki's hand off her cheek and grasping it with both hands. "You don't have to, but I do. I may have not known what I was doing at the time, but I signed a contract. I have to be a man among men in my mother's eyes, commit seppuku or live without honor." Ranma released Nabiki's hand and looked away from her out the back window of the ambulance as it sped toward the hospital. "I did this to myself. I was so sick of getting goaded into doing things because of my honor…I became more and more of a girl because I thought it was a way of escaping. I mean I didn't know that was what I was doing, but that's what it was all the same. Back at Tofu's you said I was more relaxed as a girl. It's true I was. I didn't have to be honorable. I could steal, I could pretend to be someone else, I could eat ice cream. I could lie. Because, hey, I was cursed, not my fault right?"

Ranma turned her head toward Nabiki. "There was only one way I could survive that exorcism, Nabiki. I had to admit that some part of me, some very real and integral part, was female. No matter what happens now, that's not going to change. But you see that complicates things doesn't it? It means that I can't escape my duties by being a girl, because that's part of who I am and who I'll always be. I am a man and I am a woman inside. Being female isn't being someone else. It's just me in a different form. If I want to have honor, I have be a man among men. Becoming a woman isn't going to wipe my slate clean. And maybe the whole idea of honor is silly. But damn it, it's too tied up in who I am! If I don't return to being a man, I'll always feel like I've failed."

"But, Ranma, baby, are you listening to what you're saying?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're saying that some part of you will always be female. So how are you ever going to be able to be a man among men?"

Ranma shrugged. "It's up to my mom, isn't it? If I go to Jusenkyo and use the Nannichuan, I'll be a guy with cold water. That's actually a better deal than I had before. If that's not enough for her then…"

"Then what? Ranma, honor may be important to you, but it's not enough to kill yourself over."

Ranma was silent for a moment. "Like I said, Nabiki. If you ask me not to go, I won't."

Nabiki put an arm around Ranma's shoulders. "You have to try, I suppose."

Ranma returned the embrace. "I think I need to lie down again. I'm feeling a bit woozy"

Nabiki smiled. "That's just me, Ranma baby. Relax."

"Yeah, for an ice queen, you're pretty hot," Ranma chuckled. She had to stifle a yawn as she said it, though.

Nabiki rolled her eyes at Ranma's comment as she let her lay on the stretcher. Then she turned into a fox so she could be closer.

Ranma's hand caressed her fur slowly, and then it stopped. Ranma sat up with a jerk. "Nabiki! What the fuck?'

"What?" Nabiki asked?

"You're a fox again!"

"Yes, I thought it would be more comfort-…wait…I'm not supposed to be able to do this, am I?" Nabiki looked up at Ranma's head through eyes that saw only two colors.

Ranma shook her head no, her eyes wide.

~~~~~late~~~~~

Riding behind Hoko, Hiro felt another wave of exhaustion. He had to get to the hospital to make sure that the Kodachi and the little girl trapped insided her body were okay. Or at least not getting worse. But all he wanted to do right now was sleep. He was already imagining making sweet passionate love to his mattress. Of course he also wouldn't have minded making sweet passionate love to Hoko, but would have to wait until it wasn't illegal.

"Aw that's so sweet!" Hoko exclaimed over the engine.

"What?"

"Nothing! "

"Can you read minds now?" Hiro wondered what other powers Hoko might be getting since she discovered she was an actual phoenix.

"Um…no! I could feel your penis!"

Hiro self consciously tried to scoot back a little, but the damage was done.

~_You're going to lose your badge. You're going to go to jail~_

Hiro's eyes went wide "Hoko! Pull over!"

"Aw don't freak out! I've had to deal with worse from perverts on the train…not that you're a…FUCK!" Hoko slowed and stopped at a curb. "I shouldn't have said anything okay? I just thought rather than feel all weird about it, I'd take it as a sort of compliment I didn't mean to…"

Hiro got off the bike and held up his hand to silence Hoko. "It's not that. I heard something, and I'm hoping it's not what I think it is."

~_Surprise! Miss me? ~_

"No, it can't…shit."

"What can't shit?" Hoko asked. "Is this a riddle?"

"It's denial," Hiro said.

"Hmm… Well I guess that works," Hoko said. "If something can't shit, then it fills up with shit, and I suppose denial would be something full of shit."

"No. I have a denial demon inside me. I was halfway through denying it, but that would make it stronger."

~_No, it wouldn't~ _The inky, dark voice in Hiro's head seemed to be amused.

"Why don't you just keep quiet?" Hiro snapped, "Find some more subtle way to torment me?"

~_That wouldn't be nearly as much fun! Besides I wanted to see your reaction to finding out how much my uncle duped you.~_

"Your uncle?"

~_The denial demon inside Tatewake Kuno. The brother of the demon inside of Kodachi kuno. She is my mother and you are my dear dad.~_

Hiro took a breath. He had to resist the urge to deny what he was hearing. "I suppose that could explain things," he allowed.

~_You actually believed that that Ranma girl was a goddess!_~

"I suppose I did."

~_And that Nabiki was a kitsune!~_

"Wait…You're trying to trick me…"

~_No, I'm not~ _ The demon laughed.

"Hoko, is Nabiki a kitsune or not?"

"What do you mean? Of course she's a…huh?" Hoko scratched here head. "I could have sworn she was a few minutes ago. I remember I telling her I wasn't mythist and I don't know why I'd do that if she wasn't something mythological, but now I'm not so sure."

Was the demon playing with Hoko's perceptions? After all, wasn't its uncle able to make Hiro think someone was a goddess? And Hiro saw Nabiki's foxfire and her ears with his own eyes. That couldn't have been fake, right? "You _were _trying to trick me. Nabiki _is _a kitsune."

The demon laughed more this time ~_You're a fool! Kitsune don't even exist! Nabiki is just a normal girl.~_

"She's far from normal. That girl's a kitsune if I ever saw one."

~_Are you sure? What if I'm only trying to make you think she's a kitsune?~_

"Look, there is no way that Nabiki could be normal. The way she was able to drive that bike of hers so recklessly, that green aura she has, and besides I saw her fucking fox ears! Just give it a rest already. You're not fooling anybody!"

~_Yes I am!~ _The demon laughed once more, the laughter echoing ominously in Hiro's head.

~~~~~end of Ch.14~~~~~

AN: I'm not sure about this chapter. The idea of Nabiki being a kitsune was something I couldn't resist exploring. And while I'm not sure adding new characters is really a good idea, I'm setting up two arcs that kind of have to happen before the end of the fic. I feel like the Kuno arc is missing an important ingredient, but I'm not sure what it is. Eye of newt maybe.

Some may take issue with Hestia and Bast being the same entity. The reasoning is that Hestia is the goddess of home and Hearth, while Bast, or Bastet if you prefer, is the Egyptian goddess of cats and domesticity. Scholars might argue that Bastet's Greek counterpart is actually Diana, but I say that's more Sekhmet the lioness-headed goddess. When Sekhmet became Bastet she became more about the home. I would say Bastet gets somewhat higher billing than Hestia does in public consciousness now-a-days , while Diana gets higher billing than Sekhmet. Of course this is mostly an excuse to get Bastet involved in the story, because there's an extremely odd arc that I want to pull off that will play more with the nekoken.

Thanks for all your reviews! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter and will enjoy the next. Comments are _always_ appreciated.

The weirdness shall continue.


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